Star Fox: Great Fox Down
by Vesper110
Summary: Years after the retirement of Fox McCloud and the disbanding of team Star Fox; The Lylat system has once again found itself under attack from an unknown force, General Peppy; a former team Star Fox member himself, sends one of his best pilots to convince Fox to come back, reunite and reassemble team Star Fox once again to defend the Lylat system from this new threat.
1. Chapter 1 Starfox Returns

Chapter 1: Star Fox Returns

After he retired, Fox McCloud was living a peaceful life with his wife Krystal and his son Marcus, it was all quiet in the Lylat system and everyone seemed to be living in peace until one day…

It was a quiet night on Corneria and the Cornerian air force under the guidance of general Peppy, a former team Star fox member were on patrol in the Cornerian skies when suddenly a bright light erupted above them and half of the air force were obliterated; general Peppy along with a few of the surviving pilots retreated back to base, all apart from Bill Grey; An old friend of Fox from his academy days flew out to Sauria in an effort to find Fox and Krystal, he wanted team Star fox back in the air just like the old days but little did he know that the team had disbanded, Peppy had become the general of the Cornerian army, Slippy had moved to Aquas and started a family with his new wife Amanda and Falco Lombardi had seemingly vanished off the radar along with his long-time rival Katt Monroe, the last thing bill heard was that Falco hard formed a combat team of his own called Star Falco, a very pretentious name, as he flew around Sauria he spotted a familiar arwing rusting on the ground and decided to land nearby to investigate it. As he approached the rusty Arwing Bill felt sad, his best friend and last hope to save Corneria had given up flying to be with his family "Ah man fox, where are you? I need to speak to you and it's really important; geez! Wait a minute… If I were fox where would I be?" he thought for a moment before climbing back into his aircraft and flying around Sauria paying attention to every little detail and sure enough after about thirty minutes of flying he found Fox walking alongside king tricky with his son Marcus on his shoulders to which he smiled and said "Ah Fox, I see you have taken well to being a family man; maybe I should…. No, I need his help, WE need his help," without realising Bill found Fox staring at him with a slightly annoyed glare for a few minutes before directing him to an open space to land his aircraft as he walked towards it, As Bill landed, he powered down his Cornerian fighter and climbed out coming face to face with a slightly bemused Fox who said "Hello Bill, it's been a while; now don't take this the wrong way alright but what do you think you are doing? Why are you here? And judging by the look on your face this is NOT a social visit, so what do you want?" Bill sighed and said "I'm sorry ole buddy but something real bad has happened on Corneria; me and my team were doing a routine patrol around Corneria, y'know the usual stuff when suddenly a bright light lit up the Cornerian sky and half of my men and women pilots vanished into thin air General Peppy was heading the squadron and luckily he escaped, he must be very lucky because this is the third time I think that General Peppy has escaped harm… come to think about it General Peppy is REALLY lucky isn't he?" Fox nodded and waited for a second before saying "please Bill, just cut to the chase alright?" Bill frowned a bit before saying "you are the same as usual Fox, alright I'll just cut to the chase like you wanted; Corneria is under attack by an unknown force that is neither Anglar, Apparoid or Androssian, we think it's a new enemy but at the same time it could also be Andross again; the Cornerian armada, our Air force and our Defence force numbers have dwindled since the Anglar attack that your team skilfully put a stop to and I am here to ask for your assistance, not as a member of the Cornerian defence force but as a friend; I am asking you for your help buddy so will you please help us one last time?" Fox frowned again and looked at his son Marcus before inviting Bill to dinner so they could discuss it with Krystal.

As they sat down to dinner, Krystal gave Bill a warm welcome and offered him a cup of coffee to which he politely declined and decided not to talk business with Fox and Krystal for a while and decided on a catch up session but Bill forgot one thing about Krystal, she is a telepathic empath and she could sense the tension and concern in Bill's mind to which she said "Marcus honey could you give us adults a few minutes alone with Mister Grey here? Oh I know, why not go to daddy's old arwing and see what you can do with it, you know, give it a clean and a polish maybe or maybe you could read the manual and study it?" Marcus eagerly nodded and quickly headed to the rusty arwing, leaving Krystal and Fox to talk with Bill. "So Bill you are here to talk to us about helping you to save Corneria again?" Krystal asked kindly and gently to which Bill said in a defeated tone "yeah, I cannot hide anything from you can I Mrs McCloud? Corneria is in danger and the only time it was safe was when your old team where in the skies but without team Star fox Corneria is easy pickings since the last fight with the Anglar forces decimated our defence forces leaving us vulnerable; now normally I wouldn't come to you for help since you all retired and all but still! Your team is the only hope for Corneria and the Lylat system; please Fox, Krystal, I am all out of options here but if you help us this one last time I will never bother you again."

Fox looked at Krystal who nodded silently to which Fox said "Okay Bill We will come back to fight for you but on ONE condition, where I go, Krystal goes; I made a vow on our wedding day that I'd never leave her side and I won't but that leaves one problem, our son Marcus, we cannot just leave him here alone so what can we do about that?" Bill paused for a moment and smiled before saying "leave that to me ole buddy! I got you covered!" he ran to his Fighter and saw a message waiting for him from General Peppy so he played it "Bill Grey what in blazes are you doing? I need your help; we need to bring team Star fox out of retirement if we are to save Corneria again radio in when you get this message, Peppy out!" Bill smiled and said to himself "I'm one step ahead of you old-timer," he then radioed in saying "Corneria command this is Bill Grey come in Command!" "It's about time you radioed in Bill; I need you to go on a little…." "General Peppy sir, I know what you are about to say but you don't need to say it I have Fox and Krystal, they agreed to come back but they need a babysitter for their son Marcus," Peppy paused for a moment before saying "I got just the thing, put Fox or Krystal on the radio," Bill signalled both Fox and Krystal to come over and Krystal was the one who chose to speak to Peppy "General Peppy! It has been a very long time since we last spoke, are you well?" Peppy smiled to himself before saying "I'm glad to hear from you Krystal so how is family life treating you?" Krystal and Peppy had a brief catch-up before Krystal became all business and said "While it is nice to hear from you General, I know why you are trying to get a hold of fox and I; you want us to reunite team Star Fox and fight for you again am I right? Well I do not mind that however; I cannot leave our son alone, we need someone to look after him while we do this so how do you propose we do that?" Peppy nodded to himself and took a breath before saying "Don't worry Krystal I have that taken care of, look up." Krystal looked up and saw a very big star ship descend and head over to Fox's Rusty Arwing before bringing it into the hangar of the ship to which General Peppy said proudly; say hello to the newest battleship of the Cornerian armada; Great Fox two, it has a lot of high-tech equipment and very spacious living quarters, it can house up to twenty Arwings, four land masters and two Submersibles, It also has reactive shielding stealth capabilities and the ability to transform itself into two other forms aside from the default flight mode; it's faster too!"

Fox grinned and said to himself "If Slippy saw this ship he'd be drooling uncontrollably it is so fully packed with gadgets and gizmos he'd have a field day!" Krystal walked over and placed her arms around him before saying "Yes Fox he would, so we had better get some bibs for him should we not?" Fox chuckled and smiled before nodding to which bill Said "So you are actually coming to help us? Oh thank you Fox and thank you too Krystal!" Fox looked at Bill before saying "whoa, whoa hold on there buddy! We have said we would help you but that leaves just one thing; our fee, we may be friends Bill but we still need the money to maintain the arwings and pay for repairs to the ships, then there's the wages for my team; I don't think they will do this for free you know."

Peppy paused for a minute before saying "I know that Fox; Remember my boy; I was part of your team once so I know the protocol, you will be substantially compensated for your work but I have a proposal of my own, let me fight alongside you once again not as General Peppy, but as Peppy Hare, team Star Fox veteran! After all I could do with a bit of a holiday and don't worry my boy; you will be paid double the amount should you accept my proposal, here is the amount I will pay you…" General peppy sent Fox a message attachment and when he opened the attachment his jaw dropped to the floor, it was a very substantial amount indeed to which Peppy added "If you let me fly with you again I'll double that amount but there is another request, it's not an order really it's just a little suggestion; why not join the Cornerian defence force? Don't worry; you will still be able to do things your way, the only thing that will change will be that you will get a steady flow of money into your accounts with a higher wage than the Air Force, and hey, maybe you could recruit bill into your team? So what do you say Fox… Fox?" Fox still shell-shocked at the amount being offered Krystal took over and said "Okay then General Peppy, you have drafted team Star Fox into the Cornerian defence force: but remember what we said, we will do things our way so Fox will be in command of our strategy and Bill will be Fox's Wingman, as will you and me." Peppy agreed and said "ok Mrs McCloud, we have a deal I will rendezvous with you in a few days please take this time to prepare, Peppy out," the radio went silent and Fox said "Well Krystal I guess we have no choice then, I am a little annoyed at you for agreeing to draft us into the Cornerian Airforce but I am proud of you for standing your ground with us doing things our way I guess we are officially out of retirement, now all we need is to recruit more members to our team, we need Slippy and Falco and maybe Katt Monroe and Amanda toad, we also need a few more to help fill out those empty Arwing bays, wait Arwings…. Krystal how are you going to fly when you don't have your Arwing to which Bill said "don't worry buddy, Krystal still has her Arwing and so do the others, the only Arwing we didn't have in Great Fox 2's hangar bay was yours and now we have them all oh and by the way an old friend wishes to say hi so when you board Great Fox 2 head to the bridge; see you around buddy now since I have been drafted into your squadron Fox I need extra flight training so who will give me that?" to which both Fox and Krystal said "General Peppy." Making Bill's face drop to which he said "Aw man! He's really strict and tough; couldn't any of you guys…" Fox and Krystal shook their head and Fox said "I'm sorry ole buddy but Peppy was the one who trained us so he will be training you and the new recruits and of course he will be giving Slippy a refresher course should he decide to re-join the team."

With that Bill said good bye to Fox and his family and returned to Corneria while Fox and Krystal danced around cheerily, happy that pretty soon team Star fox will be back and better than ever and the Lylat system would once again be at peace with team Star Fox patrolling the skies; if only they knew what was coming their way, would their resolve help pull them through this war to end all wars or will they crash and burn leaving the enemy forces to rend and lay waste to the Lylat system? One thing is for sure, this war will change the fate of more than just team Star Fox, more than the Cornerian defence force and even more so… The Lylat System good luck team Star Fox and stay strong…

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2 Welcome Back Falco

Chapter 2: Welcome Back Falco

Shortly after Bill Grey headed back to Corneria, Fox and Krystal boarded Great Fox 2 and as ordered they headed to the bridge and as soon as they got onto it they heard a familiar mechanical voice say "Captain on the bridge," to which Fox said "NUS64? Is that you?" "Affirmative Fox… although I prefer the name ROB…" "Ok ROB it is then, so how have the Cornerian forces been treating you?" ROB processed the question before saying "they have treated me well Fox, they thoroughly maintained me and upgraded the great fox," "very well ROB; how much fuel have we got?" Rob looked at the console and typed I a few keystrokes before saying "we have enough fuel to reach Corneria, please plot a course…" Fox nodded and headed over to the space map and plotted the quickest and most economic route to Corneria to which Fox said "Alright, once we get to Corneria we will refuel and perform maintenance checks on Great Fox 2 AFTER we have performed maintenance on ourselves, Rob can you handle things from here?" ROB turned around to fox and said affirmative Fox, beginning maintenance checks please rest during the journey." Fox nodded and headed to the habitation deck of Great Fox 2 finding a room set specifically aside for him and Krystal, A room for Marcus and a load of rooms with Vacant name plates apart from Falco's and Slippy's quarters their quarters were designed for two people just like Fox and Krystal's with all the amenities needed for comfortable living.

A few hours had passed after Fox and Krystal went to bed when suddenly the proximity alarm sounded rousing Fox and Krystal from their sleep to which ROB announced over the PA system "Captain and Vice-captain to the bridge! Captain and Vice-Captain to the bridge," Fox and Krystal quickly got dressed in their old flight gear and headed to the bridge where Fox said as he entered "Rob what is the situation?" to which ROB replied "Enemy fighters detected at 12 o'clock please head to the hangar bay…" Fox and Krystal nodded and ran to the Hangar bay before boarding their Arwings, "Krystal we need to do our pre-flight checks!" Krystal nodded and they began starting up ther arwings as the on board computer synched with the Arwing's computers:-

"*Internal power to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*External power to **disable**…._Disabled_

*Primary weapons to **enable**…._Enabled_

*Secondary weapons to **enable** and **prime**…._Primed_

*Astrogation systems to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*Life Support to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*Deflector shields to **enable** and _Prime_

*Targeting systems to **enable**…. _Enabled_

*Alpha Interface to **enable**… _Enabled_  
*Beta Interface to **prime**… _Primed_  
*Twin Lasers to **enable**… _Enabled_

*Nova Bombs to **prime**… _Primed_  
*Starflight mode to **enable**…. _Enabled_

*All-range mode to **prime**…. _Primed_  
* **All Systems go**…. _Acknowledged, all systems are a go, Arwings primed and ready…_"

As soon as the check list was completed, both Fox and Krystal flew out of the Hangar bay of Great Fox 2 before engaging the enemy that attacked their mother ship. As they flew into the enemy flight path Krystal and Fox tore up the enemy but no sooner had they taken them out more had taken ther place;then before they knew it, both Fox and Krystal were surrounded and at a major disadvantage because more enemy flew in faster than Fox and Krystal could shoot them down, "Fox… We are in trouble here my shield guage has started flashing and something is wrong with the G-diffuser system of my Arwing, also like mine; your Arwing is also red-lighting; if we do not do something soon this will be a very short reunion; so what do we do?" As soon as Krystal said that Fox's Critical damage alarm sounded and His Arwing was virtually crippled, "damn it! My Arwing is starting to break apart. I think we have had it Krystal…." "That's not like you Foxy boy, you have been in tighter squeezes than this before buddy, or has family life made ya soft?" as soon as that familiarly arrogant voice finished his transmission, the enemy surrounding Fox and Krystal got wiped out by a nova bomb and when the light died down a familiar Arwing flew into view and fox said to himself "Wait… That Arwing is the Skyclaw…" he paused and then got an annoyed grin on his face before he continued "And only ONE person flies that Arwing… Hey Falco what took ya so long?" the Skyclaw flew beside the Arwing that Fox was piloting and the cockpit tint faded away and sure enough Fox saw Falco's face smiling at him and giving him the thumbs up before guiding both Krystal and Fox back to Great Fox 2 to which ROB announced the arrival of each Arwing as it few into the hangar, "Fox's ship is in the docking bay, Krystal's ship is in the docking bay, Falco's ship is in the docking bay…. All Arwings docked in the hangar bay…" Fox climbed out of his busted up Arwing and shook his head before Falco ran over to him and gave him a platonic embrace before saying "What would ya do without me Foxy boy? It was a good thing I came when I did," "Yeah about that Falco, how did you know that we were here? It was only me and Krystal here with Great Fox 2 so how?" "Ah don't sweat it buddy, I was in the neighbourhood and saw you getting' your ass kicked so I decided to help, well if you would let me."

Fox sighed an looked at Falco before saying "alright Falco, you can come back to us but we are not the same team we were before, we are now a part of the Cornerian defence force permanently; but don't worry, the conditions Krystal gave were quite clear; we still do things our own way and look on the bright side, we have a steady cash flow now and before you know it we will be able to upgrade everything, including ROB ad the Great Fox, so with that little bit of excitement over let's head to Corneria; General Peppy is expecting us so Falco… Behave yourself now okay?" "Yeah, Yeah Fox I gotcha." "Well on that note Falco, let's all go and get some sleep we need to rest now if we are to be fresh for when we meet the general." With those words the team all went to bed to which ROB got a message from an unknown Arwing "hi there ROB; this is Katt Monroe requesting permission to dock Great fox 2." "Will Fox McCloud return to the bridge, will Fox McCloud return to the bridge" Fox grumbled before getting dressed in his flight gear once again and saying "geez! Can't a guy get any sleep around here?" after saying that Fox was once again on the bridge, looking really tired and fed up to which he said "Okay ROB what is the problem?" "Katt Monroe is requesting to dock with the great Fox… What is your order?" "Hmm… Okay ROB; let her board and please, no more interruptions? I need sleep," "Affirmative fox, granting docking clearance to Katt Monroe…" With that Fox yawned and went to bed; leaving Falco to deal with the newest crew member of team Star fox.

As Falco stepped onto the bridge the first thing he heard was a very sultry voice say "Well hello there handsome; ya miss me?" Falco Sighed and said "like a hole in the head Katt, I miss ya like a hole in the head." "Oh that is so mean Falco, how could you be so cruel to a pretty girl like me?" Falco started to get rattled to which Katt decided to get serious "All joking aside Falco I'm here as a new recruit for your team; I got an official order from General Peppy and a few more girls are going to be joining soon too, along with some of the Cornerian Airforce but that will take a while since all of us are scattered around the Lylat system and we are all looking forward to working with you and Star Fox." "Great, we could do with the help, welcome aboard Katt." And with those final words Falco escorted Katt to their living quarters and went to sleep; once Krystal, Katt, Fox and Falco had settled down ROB muted all alerts so they could get some rest as he started using the defence systems of Great Fox 2. After about seven hours of flight, Great Fox 2 got to Corneria and made planetfall and landed at the Cornerian airfield to which Fox and his steadily growing crew disembarked from Great Fox 2 as General Peppy greeted them "welcome back to Corneria Fox; it's good to see you in person again and I see you have extended your crew by two more but you need to strengthen your ranks and make them stronger; this enemy took out half of the Cornerian defence force in one blow and I am aware of your battle on the way here," Fox nodded and saluted before saying "General Peppy sir; team Star Fox is on the job but we need some refresher training because I nearly had my tail handed to me and so did Krystal, if Falco hadn't arrived when he did both me and Krystal would be space dust so thanks Falco and welcome back to the team," after that Fox and the newly expanding Star fox headed to the main headquarters of the Cornerian forces where they got an unscheduled transmission from Slippy, "Hey guys Slippy here; both Amanda and me are on the way to Corneria now but the lines we have to cross are swarming with enemy so could you come and help a guy out?" Fox and is new team nodded before asking permission to engage the enemy and Peppy gave them an okay before wishing them good luck.

With their orders in hand the newly revived Star fox team deployed with some backup from Bill Grey and a few Stalwart members of the Cornerian air force who backed him up efficiently and successfully suppressed the enemy forces just enough for Star fox to break through to Slippy toad and his wife Amanda; who had modified her tadpole aircraft to fly their children with them to Great Fox 2, "This is Amanda toad transmitting on all frequencies Slippy and I are inbound and request cover from the air, I have a few civilians on board and are requesting to land over," Peppy cleared his throat and said "Acknowledged Amanda, you and Slippy are cleared to land, keep an eye on your vectors and proceed into the hangar bay of Great Fox 2, Peppy out." "Acknowledged General; Amanda and Slippy are heading to Great fox 2, over and out." And with that Amanda and Slippy broke through the atmospheric ceiling and headed to their waypoint and docked before disembarking from Great Fox 2. "Finally we are back on the ground; I was beginning to worry, how about you Slippy?" "I'm fine Amanda, Thank you Fox; they almost had me." Falco rolled his eyes to which Peppy said "You haven't changed much have ya Slippy? Ya still fly in recklessly; just as bad as Fox." Slippy sighed and said "you don't have to be so mean General," Peppy laughed and said "I'm sorry Slip; I just can't resist sayin' that sometimes but you really do have to learn to use your head in a space battle and making calculated decisions to give you an edge on the battlefield; which is why I am gonna train all of ya, and I mean ALL OF YA, get some rest ladies and gentlemen because once you are rested enough we are goin' straight to trainin'. Move out," once Peppy finished what he was saying, everyone saluted and stood to attention to which Peppy said "All units move out!" and just like that everyone went to bed and got some rest because Peppy's training regimen was not easy… it was _**BRUTAL. **_He would treat you like an enemy and not hold back; forcing you to think on your feet, it was brutal but it was a good way to train And Fox McCloud loved it! The feeling of exhilaration when you successfully evaded an enemy, or the determination to go on fighting even if you are damaged, the sense of tension when your enemy is evading you; all the while plotting their attack on you, it made Fox feel alive but would his new team survive the training dished out by Peppy?

To be continued…

*I used some of the dialog from a very well made remix of the Corneria theme by  
the wingless; the tune is called Starfox godspeed; Corneria theme remix.


	3. Chapter 3: Training Complete

Chapter 3: Training complete

After three weeks of intense training from General Peppy, Fox and the newly reformed Star Fox team were exhausted and just wanted to rest to which Peppy in his usual demeanour said "y'aint got time to rest Star Fox; we just received a distress call from Corneria and we need to answer it," Fox looked at General Peppy and said "Okay General; we'll get right on it, Star Fox Move out!" with those words, the whole team ran to the hangar bays where their Arwings were docked and boarded them, as they started up their aircraft they went through the checklist once again enabling, disabling and priming their systems; after about ten minutes of pre-flight checks the newly trained team Star fox took off to which fox barked "All wings check in…" "This is Peppy, all systems go," "Slippy here, I'm okay," "this is Falco… I'm fine! Let's go already," "Krystal here All Systems Green," "Bill Grey here… systems 100 percent operational!" "This is Amanda; all systems operating at full capacity," "This is Katt Monroe; I am fully operational!" "This is Fox McCloud, are all systems go? If so then let's rock 'n' roll!" With that team Star fox launched from Great Fox II and headed straight for Corneria. "This is Team Star Fox to Corneria command, come in command! No response… Corneria Command; we are entering Corneria city now." They still got no response to which Falco said "I don't like this Fox its quiet; too quiet, I see no friendly craft in or around and Corneria city looks like a wasteland, wait; I'm detecting three weak life signs in the abandoned hangar that's surrounded by some unknown enemy… Attention unidentified lifeforms this is Falco Lombardi of team Star Fox; please, identify yourselves," he got no response and told Fox who advised him to keep an eye on his communications array.

Meanwhile in the hangar a female fennec fox stirred and woke up her companions, a female lynx and a female dog, "hey Miyu, Fay; wake up! I'm getting a signal, it's weak but understandable; I think we are about to be saved and by team Star Fox no less…" The female Lynx looked at her companion and said "don't be stupid you moronic Fox! Didn't you hear? Team Star Fox disbanded after the defeat of the Anglar forces and went on to live their separate lives; that is why General Peppy, a FORMER team Star Fox member formed the experimental craft division; y'know the division that employs us?" "But Miyu, I distinctly heard the name Star Fox in the transmission!" The lynx known as Miyu Frowned and said "All right then; but if I respond and find out it was a trap I'm gonna tan your hide and turn you into a pair of matching fur-lined boots!" She then painfully got up and hit the transceiver before saying "this is Fay Lynx of the Cornerian experimental aircraft division; come in team Star Fox! I say again; come in Star Fox! I am here with two other survivors of the hostile onslaught; a Female dog named Fay and an airheaded Fennec Fox named Fara, we need assistance over!" After a while Fox replied "This is Fox McCloud of team Star Fox, what is your current condition?" Fara's eyes lit up as she said "Did he… did he just say his name was Fox McCloud?! Oh wow the legend himself is coming to help us!" Miyu shook her head and said "you do know that he is married right? And he is probably on his way here with his wife to help us," Fara looked at Miyu defiantly and said "So what if he is married? No need to be a bitch about it! Besides I'm not interested in him in 'that' way; it has always been a dream of mine to join up with team Star Fox as a pilot so I was devastated when I learned that team Star fox had disbanded and that is also the reason I decided to join up with this division as it was under the watchful eye of a former team Star Fox member; good old General Peppy." Before Fay could say anything in response to Fox's last transmission she heard him say "Twin lasers to enabled and charged; initiating strafing run, attention survivors; I am starting a medium altitude bombardment, stay clear of the doors until I give the all clear!" no sooner had Fox said that; Fay, Miyu and Fara scrambled away from the door in a panic as they heard the lasers charge up further before being released with multiple heavy booms as the enemy around the doors got destroyed one by one.

After about 20 minutes the enemy were destroyed and Fox landed his arwing alongside Krystal who had equipped a battle rifle just in case it was trap; Fox and Krystal then signalled to each other before breaching the doors and rolling in during the confusion to which both Krystal and Fox had their rifles in the ready position covering each other's backs to which Krystal said "This is Krystal McCloud; hold your positions and await ID confirmation!" The three girls raised their hands up in the air and looked a little bit worried to which Krystal said, not realising they were women, "Prepare for a full body search," then as the dust cleared the first thing Krystal saw was an embarrassed looking fox to which she said "what are you doing Fox? Hurry up and search…" Her sentence was cut short when she looked at the three survivors who were clearly female to which she said "oh, I am so sorry; I did not know that you were women, my mistake; Ok Fox, I will search them; so no peeking alright sweetheart?" Fox nodded before taking up a defensive position as Krystal did the search on the three new women; a few minutes later Krystal patted Fox on the shoulder and said "Ok Fox, they are all clear I suggest that we take them onto Great Fox 2 and set them up with some nice sleeping quarters," to which Fara said "But what about our fighters? We cannot leave without them," Krystal sighed slightly before saying "Alright then; ROB, can you transport the aircraft on these three into the Great Fox's Hangar?" there was a brief pause to which ROB said "Affirmative Krystal, three fighters have now been transferred into Great Fox 2's Hangar." Krystal smiled before saying "Okay ROB thank you, we are now bringing three new recruits for Star Fox onto the ship; Peppy is going to have fun with these three!" She then gave a happy giggle before walking over to Fox and embracing him tightly saying "Well Fox; it looks like we have once again increased our team's strength, I cannot wait to see what these three can or cannot do as the case may be; I hope Peppy will be gentle with their training." Fox sniggered and said "Krystal my dear; I don't think so somehow, after all he didn't hold back for you or any of the other women on the team did he? Either way; as the case may be we now have two more women than men on the team so we still need two more recruits and then our roster will be complete."

While all this was going on Fara got excited and said quietly so only Fay and Miyu could hear her "did she just say three new recruits for the team?! Is she… Is she talking about us?" Fay paused for a moment before carefully approaching Krystal and asking "Excuse me Mrs McCloud," Krystal turned around and said "Yes young lady?" to which Fay said "Did you just tell your ship's pilot that you have three new recruits for your team? If so who are they, the only three I see are myself, Fara and Miyu which means… omigod! You are letting us join your team?!" Krystal smiled and nodded before saying "Yes, if that is what you ladies want," Fara got really happy and ran over to Krystal before taking Krystal's hands in hers and saying "Yes please oh god yes! It has always been my dream to become a part of your team ever since you beaten back the Anglar forces with your skills!" Krystal laughed before saying "alright miss, take it easy alright? The first thing that we need to do is get the three of you on board the Great Fox so you can rest and recover from your ordeal; then it will be down to General Peppy to train you but can you keep up with us? I will just have to wait and see will I not?" Fara grinned at Krystal before saying "challenge accepted Mrs McCloud!" to which Krystal just turned around to all three of them and said "since all three of you will be working closely with us we need to get rid of the formalities; instead of calling me Mrs McCloud, just call me Krystal and it is the same towards all of team Star Fox, we are a family; not an army. We look after each other at all times, we laugh together and we cry together; as a family we will help one and other to restore peace to Corneria and the Lylat System once again." After that speech Krystal felt tired and said "Fox, I'm going to head to our sleeping quarters because I feel a little bit tired." Fox nodded and told Krystal that he'd take care of their son while she slept to which Krystal gave a tired smile, embraced Fox and then gave him a kiss before heading back into her Arwing to which ROB Auto piloted it back to the hangar where the Arwing docked itself while Krystal took a little nap in the cockpit of her ship for a few moments before pulling herself out of it and making her way to bed as Fox, obviously concerned for his wife, docked his Arwing II and jumped out of the cockpit as it was still docking to the Great Fox II, "ROB; take care of things from here, I'm gonna see if Krystal is okay," "Affirmative Fox; docking mode has been switched from manual to automatic." Once it was confirmed, Fox headed to their sleeping quarters with Markus on his shoulders who was also worried about his mother, "Father; will mother be okay because she looks a little bit sick," Fox looked at his son before smiling and saying "Don't worry Markus, your mother just needs to rest for a little while; oh I know! Why don't you go and say hello to our new friends Miyu, Fara and Fay? I'm sure Uncle Peppy will let you say hi to them and I am sure that once you have done that Uncle Slippy will teach you more about our ships while I check on your mother."

Markus nodded eagerly so Fox let him off his shoulders to which Markus ran straight over to the three new women that had just joined the team and said a very shy hello to all three of them while Fox, growing evermore worried about Krystal, headed into their shared sleeping quarters where he saw Krystal feeling feverish to which he sat beside her and placed his arm across her shoulders before saying "are you okay Krystal?" after a short pause Krystal turned to fox and said "Don't worry Fox I'm fine, I just need some sleep because lately I haven't been able to do so for the past few months, I keep on getting these horrible visions of the future and they upset me so much I find it hard to sleep anymore." Confused at Krystal's words Fox looked her in the eyes and said "What is troubling you so badly Krystal?" Krystal sighed before saying to Fox "I'll tell you; as you know already lately I have been getting visions of the future, visions of something really awful happening to… to you, all I have been seeing lately are these visions of your Arwing 2 going down with you inside of it and getting badly hurt, this is also followed by a vision of something really bad happening to our mothership; with all of this happening I have been unable to sleep with worrying about you and the darkness that clouds over the future of Star Fox covered over by a crimson veil of uncertainty that even I cannot see through." Krystal then paused before shakily getting off the bed and heading over to their ornamental cabinet that housed Krystal's power staff from when she first met Fox on Sauria when Andross took over the Krazoa palace; tricking fox and Krystal into getting him the Krazoa Spirits so he could rebirth himself as a god, which was promptly stopped by Fox who destroyed him before returning to Corneria that was, back then, under the command of General Pepper who retired shortly after the Apparoid assault due to ill health; passing on command of the Cornerian defence force to Peppy. She picked up her power staff and walked over to fox with tears in her eyes and said "Please Fox; take my staff with you no matter where you go and use it to defend yourself from harm, you used it so well on Sauria back then; please take it, so you'll have me there with you should anything happen, have it with you as a good luck charm." Fox nodded and took the staff before embracing the tearful Krystal saying in his most soothing voice he could manage "Krystal, honey; no matter what happens nothing bad will happen to me I promise," Krystal looked at him before saying "but Fox what if my visions are not just nightmares? What if something really bad does happen to you?" Fox comforted Krystal and said "ok Krystal, to put your mind at ease I will take the staff with me and keep it on my person at all times alright?" Krystal just gave him a wordless hug before closing her eyes and resting her head against is chest to which they both laid down on the bed together where Fox embraced his distraught and confused wife with one arm as he held their staff up to his eyes in the other before sighing and saying "Don't worry Krystal, I'll be fine; the future is not set in stone and should anything bad happen having you with me in spirit with help me overcome any challenge." And shortly after that he kissed his sleeping wife before falling asleep himself as he held the tired Krystal close for the rest of the night.


	4. Chapter 4: Krystal's Love

Chapter 4: Krystal's love

Next morning Krystal woke up to see Fox gone, she just assumed that he'd gone onto the bridge of the ship so she got dressed and headed up, hoping to see Fox sat in his usual chair but when she got there Fox was nowhere to be found like the time when she woke up alone she dismissed her initial thoughts and assumed that he'd headed into the arwing hangar so she looked at ROB and said "ROB, Do you know where Fox is? Is he on a mission or something?" ROB turned around and said "Negative Krystal Fox is not on a mission; he went on a short flight about three hours ago and has not radioed in yet." Krystal started to get a little bit worried about what happened ut when she went to head to the hangar Fox radioed in "Come it in Great Fox 2 this is Fox McCloud returning from my morning flight; there is nothing out of the ordinary to report." Krystal breathed a sigh of relief and as soon as fox entered the bridge Krystal gave him a hostile look to which Fox said "Morning Krystal, what's up?" "You KNOW what is up Fox; you left the ship without waking me up to let me know! I've been worried sick about you!" taken aback by Krystal shouting at him he took a deep breath and said "I tried to tell you Krystal but you were in a deep sleep; A sleep, I might add, that you obviously needed; otherwise you would have woken up when I tried to tell you that I was going out on a flight." Frustrated at Fox's response Krystal took a deep breath and said "Ok then Fox; since you tried to tell me while I was asleep, I will let you off just this once however; as of now I am not going to leave you alone, whenever you go on a flight I am coming with you; REGARDLESS of what you say and at the same time even when you go to another part of the ship I will be accompanying you and before you ask me 'why are you going to such lengths to be with me', do you not remember what I told you last night? I told you that I have a bad feeling about this mission to save the Lylat system. I'm worried that I'll lose you to some stupid enemy and our son will be without a father in his life… does that sound familiar Fox? You know; I wonder what your father or mother would say if you were to leave your wife and son behind after going on a fool's errand and getting shot out of the skies? Do you not understand fox? I'm terrified of losing the man I love and the man who _PROMISED_ to never leave me behind." After being lovingly chastised by Krystal; Fox sighed and apologised for making her worry before accepting her terms and conditions that she had just laid out to keep him safe from harm, from that day onward Fox never left the ship without Krystal; every mission he went on Krystal followed and this carried on for quite a few weeks but little did they know that there was an event just around the corner that would forcefully separate them and force Krystal to fight harder than she was used to;

Elsewhere in the Lylat System:

A group of unknowns are hanging around an old thug hangout looking for people to strengthen their ranks when they stumble upon team Star wolf "Are you Wolf 'O'Donnell?" one of the entities asked to which Wolf replied "depends on who is asking," the mysterious soldier had started to ask Wolf several questions before saying "The 'Regent' is searching for the best pilots in this system to help him take over this pathetic system and has expressed interest in your abilities," Wolf paused for a moment before shaking his head and saying "get lost you freak; I'd sooner die than work for some guy I don't even know, I have a code of conduct that I follow and this 'Regent' or whatever he is does not meet my standards, the only way I'll work for him is if I get paid really well but judging by your appearance, you can barely afford to pay for a ship let alone me and my men…" the unknown entity paused for a second and said "A pity; you have potential, please consider my offer Mr O'Donnell," Wolf glared at him and said "Show me the cash and then I'll consider it."

The unknown entity gave an evil smile before reaching into his pocket and said "I assure you Mr O'Donnell, you will be rewarded handsomely…" he then opened his hand out and showed Wolf a load of gold and gemstones before saying "Work for my master and this can all be yours plus more; riches beyond your comprehension." Wolf looked at the man and said "I'll consider it," the man then said "Well if you are not interested perhaps I can interest team Star Fox with my offer." Wolf laughed and said "those goody-two shoes would refuse you right off the bat, my team is your only hope; you just got yourself some new pilots." The 'Regent's' representative let out an evil smile and said "very well, come with me." With that Team Star Wolf left with the mysterious entities rubbing his hands together with glee, thinking that it'd be an easy pay check; how wrong he would be.

Back On Great Fox II

Fox and Krystal had just finished their routine patrol of Fichina and found nothing, not even any civilians, even the weather control centre was silent; covered in tonnes of snow "Why is the weather control centre offline and where are the locals?" said Fox, frustrated with being unable to reactivate the weather control centre and as he flew around in the snow Fox flashed back to the time he fought against team Star Wolf; narrowly saving the climate control centre from blowing up after Team Star Wolf placed a bomb inside of it and tried to fight off Fox in an effort to delay him in defusing the bomb but he was too good for them and sent them packing ut just as he was about to head back to Great Fox II he heard a familiar voice "Brings back memories doesn't Fox? I mean it was on this very battlefield where you robbed me of my victory and now I have come to reclaim my glory by beating you!" then in flew team Star Wolf who purposely targeted Fox's Arwing II to which Krystal, angry at the concept of losing Fox again flew in aggressively to which Panther said "Ah the lovely Krystal; have you come back to me and re-join the team?" to which Krystal said "I am so sorry Panther but I would rather die at Fox's side than re-join your troupe of clowns; Besides I have a son now and I made a vow to never leave Fox again, so if you want to kill him; then you will have to take me on too! This is Krystal Fox, requesting support from Great Fox II; team Star Wolf has decided to engage Fox and I in battle, please send assistance." After that radio message both Falco and Bill flew in; Bill said "never fear your backup is here!" to which Falco added "Yeah, we can help you out here but I suggest you make your way back to Great Fox two while the rest of us and the new recruits cover your escape so pay attention Fox 'cause you are about to owe me BIG! Falco out." He then flew over Fox's Arwing and opened fire on Wolf while Fox and Krystal headed they docked with Great Fox II Krystal and Fox jumped out of their Arwings and ran to the bridge of the ship where Fox got onto the guns, while Krystal got onto the scanners "Fox; One of the Wolfen are tailing Bill and he seems to be having difficulty evading his pursuer, locking all crosshairs onto team Star Wolf stand by…. FIRE!" Fox fired the guns and shot Leon out of the sky while crippling Panther's ship and forcing Wolf's ship to crash-land onto Fichina's surface, "Damn you Star Fox! We will defeat you! our employer wants anyone who opposes him to be destroyed and you will never defeat them!" with that Wolf retrieved Leon's damaged ship and Panther's crippled aircraft to which he said "Until we meet again Krystal… you will be mine once again." Then team Star Wolf left in a hurry as Fox fired warning shots at them saying "If we ever see you again we will take you down Star Wolf; now get the fuck out of my sight!" then with that the Wolfen of team Star Wolf vanished over the horizon firing shots behind them to stop any pursuers of Team Star Fox from gaining on them, "Damn it! We lost them should we continue the chase?" Bill said to which Fox told them to let them go. And with the fight between team Star Wolf and team Star Fox was over both Fox and Krystal got out of their positions and embraced each other to which Krystal said "I'm still going to stick with you through thick and thin, I will _NEVER _re-join those guys; that was my biggest mistake and one I regret deeply, I promise that I will stay with you and your team no matter what."

Fox smiled and said "I know Krystal and I trust you so you do not need to constantly reassure me of your loyalty. Well I'm tired so let's go to bed shall we?" Krystal nodded and put her arm around his shoulders and kissed him as they headed to bed. Next morning Fox woke up Krystal and said "Thank you for last night Krystal, wolf would've got me if you hadn't been there and I would have been downed and probably dead, that was far too close so I think I should take a break from flying my Arwing II and spend some time with our son," Krystal paused and smiled before saying "I will do the same Fox; that fight badly damaged my cloud runner and it looks like it will take a few weeks to repair with the constant deployment of our team; the only person that can properly take care of our ships is Slippy and he is busy on Aquas keeping the planet and his family safe so we are grounded until further notice, as for General Peppy; I wonder where he is?" Hearing Krystal's question ROB turned around and said "General Peppy is at the memorial of his wife Vivian with his daughter Lucy he is under heavy guard by the Cornerian defence forces and two members of Star Fox."

Krystal nodded and looked at Fox before saying "Let us look after this ship and prepare it for his return; I'll make a memorial feast for those who have fallen and for the future of those who have taken up the roles of the fallen. This will include your mother and father, Fox it is about time we remembered them for what they had done for us and what they sacrificed for our futures."

Fox nodded and smiled a sad smile as he remembered all of the people that had fallen in the line of duty; including the soldiers of the Cornerian defence force who fell in the defence of Corneria during the Anglar invasion, the Apparoid invasion, the Androssian wars and the fallen of Sauria during the Krazoa incident.

Fox then looked down at his son, who was sleeping in General Peppy's chair, to which Fox felt his heart melt even more, he was proud of Markus and hoped he'd have a bright future with his family while making his son an heir to the team Star Fox name; Krystal saw the look fox was giving their son and walked over to him before wrapping her arms around Fox and holding him tightly saying "one day our son will become a great leader, just like his father and when that time comes it is down to us as his parents to guide and protect him which makes it even harder for me to say this but… Fox do you think we could just leave the team for a while? I mean we have a enough people to make up for our absence so why don't we do that? You know; spend time together as a family on Sauria like we did before this new fight broke out?" Fox looked at Krystal before saying "are those visions still haunting you Krystal? Is that why you are asking for us to take a short leave of absence from the team?" Krystal looked at him through glassy eyes and said "It's not just that Fox, the reason I am asking this of you is because I love you and I don't want Markus to be without his father at this crucial time in his life and regarding the visions I am having, they are getting worse Fox; each time I have them it hurts my chest and makes me want to cry but then I see you lying next to me and the pain fades, I know what I am asking is selfish and I understand that team Star Fox is your pride and joy since your father founded it with Peppy and Pigma before getting betrayed by Pigma Dengar; the one he called a friend, you told me about it quite often but please consider my request; you don't have to give up being a part of team Star Fox, just be there for your family like Peppy is there for Lucy." Fox looked at Krystal and sighed before finally relenting and saying "Okay Krystal, we will take a vacation with Markus; but as soon as an emergency occurs we will have to cut our holiday short okay?" Krystal sighed slightly defeated but said "okay Fox, I will agree with you on that but you will still go on holiday with our son and me for a while right?" Fox smiled and nodded before adding "Maybe spending time with my family will help clear my head and also; it just means I have more of a chance to bond with our son than I have had for a while. I'd like that, so we will do that, okay Krystal?" Krystal's eyes lit up with joy when Fox said that and she decided to hold him tighter than ever before saying "I really do Love you Fox McCloud," to which Fox ended the conversation saying "and I love you to Krystal." And then they picked up their sleeping son and took him into their sleeping quarters where they slept silently that night; blissfully unaware of the approaching tragedy that would shatter their peaceful lives and force team Star Fox into action.

To Be Continued…


	5. Chapter 5: A Hero Falls

Chapter 5: A hero falls

After their tender moment with their son Fox and Krystal put Marcus back in his own sleeping quarters and went to bed late that night, as they laid beside each other they had a heart to heart with one and other, "Fox, I am really happy that you decided to agree with my selfish request; now I know you don't like being tied down but I still can't shake this feeling that something bad is going to happen so tomorrow, we are both going to speak to general Peppy about this feeling I have and hopefully he won't make us go on unnecessary missions." Fox turned to Krystal and said "Y'know I have been thinking about what you said regarding my father and mother and I can understand your concern but at the same time I found it upsetting; you know I hate talking about that and I am annoyed that you would even bring it up, with that said; I kind of understand, I mean at a young age my mother died by an assassination attempt on my father it was a cruel trick of fate that it was my mother that was taken instead of my father but I often wonder… if it were my father that was assassinated and not my mother, would I still be a pilot? I mean yeah I love flying but that was down to my father raising me, so I don't know if things were different we would not have met and Marcus would not have been born and… and I wouldn't have broken your heart like that time after the Apparoid invasion was crushed, if anything you would still be on Sauria living happily." Krystal sighed and hugged Fox before saying "That may be true but remember this; had you not come to Sauria and saved me yeah I would be living on that planet but at the same time Sauria would have exploded taking out the Lylat system so either way you would've been killed too along with all of the Lylat system so judge for yourself, were it different would that day still be a fate changer?"

Fox paused for a moment before hugging Krystal again and said "I guess we will never know, anyway; we need to get some rest but like you I have a bad feeling about this too, despite this feeling that we are both having we still need to carry on and never give up or my father will never get to rest in peace nor would my mother so we MUST do this for all of Corneria and all of the Lylat system." Krystal nodded in agreement and they both fell asleep snuggled up together feeling each other's warmth.

6 hours later 

The alarms of Great Fox II were wailing as the lights that lined the corridors flashed red in synchronisation with the sirens waking up the entire crew of Great Fox II who ran into the bridge as ROB informed them of the situation "Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! Incoming enemy fighters, will all pilots prepare for launch!" Fox ran over to the console and said "ROB, give me the status of Great Fox two." ROB typed in several keystrokes before saying "Great Fox 2 is under attack, hull integrity at seventy percent and dropping; it is advised that all pilots deploy and defend the ship from enemy attacks." Fox nodded and turned to his pilots and said "Team Star Fox Move out!" And just like that all of the pilots ran to the hangar and boarded their Arwings and went through the checklists once again and launched out of Great Fox II's Hangar bay,

"All wings Check in!" once again Team Star Fox gave their status reports

"Falco here; let's go!" "Slippy here; here I go!" "This is Krystal All systems are green!" "This is Amanda; A few minor anomalies but I'll be fine!" "Bill here! All systems operating at one hundred percent," "this is Fara Phoenix, My Arwing is operating within normal parameters!" "This is Miyu Lynx; all systems are a go!" "This is Fay Canine; I'm ready!" "This is Katt Monroe; I'm ready for action!"

After hearing his new team finish their reports, Fox grinned and said "Alright Star Fox, Let's rock and Roll! We need to take out the enemy swiftly! Fay, Miyu, will you cover Great Fox two's Port and Starboard wing sections while Falco and Slippy cover Great Fox two from behind; Katt and Bill, cover the front section of the ship; Krystal and I will fly support for all of you so let's take it to 'em!" after he gave the battle plan all of the team acknowledged his order and went about their defence of Great Fox II, Miyu and Fay were getting excited since this was their first ever mission flying a top of the range aircraft outside of a testing base while Fara felt a little bit unsure but carried on anyway; as the fight heated up Fox glanced over his shoulder with pride as he watched his newly formed and strengthened team fight back the enemy; about half an hour later a familiar voice spoke over the radio "Fox, Krystal this is General Peppy; I'm joinin' the fray, my ship is operating at full power and I am commin' in to cover Great Fox two I got your back; just like old times! Man this takes me back to when I fought alongside your father, he fought the same way you do Fox and I am sure that wherever he is; he's proud of what you've become, I know I am!" Fox smiled slightly and said "okay old-timer, let's see if you still got it!" Peppy acknowledged Fox's challenge and fought just as hard as everyone else to which Fox said "We have nearly beaten the attack back! I'm heading into the main enemy fleet; I am gonna take down their mother-ship, Krystal! Slippy! Fara! Please come and assist me! Peppy, relieve Fara and take of defensive positions! We will have this wrapped up before dinn…" before he could finish his sentence he heard the, oh so familiar "I can't let you do that Star fox," and just like before; in flew team Star Wolf with completely new ships that outmanoeuvred and outgunned the Arwings to which Leon targeted Slippy, Panther targeted Krystal Wolf targeted Fox and an unknown pilot targeted Fara and being the less experienced and reserved pilot Fara started to panic and made several critical errors in her decisions but Fox being the kind and caring leader that he was flew in evading Wolf and fighting off the unknown pilot just enough for Fara to escape "Fara! Take evasive action and return to Great Fox II; don't worry about this, you'll still be a member of this team; I'll just have to find a way to give you a confidence boost am I right?" Fara felt useless and was on the verge of tears when Fox gave her some life changing advice "It's okay to be afraid and worry about never returning from battle; All of us go through that at some stage, even me but what counters that is being smart, making a judgement call and deciding whether to fight and die, or run away and survive to fight another day; it's decisions like this that will help you win on the battlefield, either way you must never give up; that is what my father taught me when I was young."

Fara looked up at Fox who was flying above her Arwing taking hit after hit in an effort to escort her back to Great Fox II and as she got within a safe distance of the ship; Fox did a loop in his Arwing II and took more damage to which his critical hit alarm sounded; but still he boosted in with the lights in his cockpit flashing red to which his Arwing II computer said "WARNING: HULL INTEGRITY AT FIFTEEN PERCENT!" Still fox flew in taking out enemy after enemy to which Krystal; who was upset about her vision coming true cried out down the radio "Fox! Your arwing is red-lighting! Please get out of there!" Hearing his frantic wife over the radio fox replied "Krystal I'll be fine okay? You just concentrate on staying alive;" becoming more hysterical, Krystal screamed at him over the radio "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND FOX! THIS IS WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF! MY VISIONS ARE COMING TRUE! SO PLEASE FOR THE SAKE OF OUR SON PULL OUT OF BATTLE!" After Krystal screaming down the radio Fox's Arwing II took another hit causing the major damage alarm to sound and the computer announced "DANGER: HULL INTEGRITY AT TEN PERCENT!" Then finally after the third hit the critical damage alarm sounded and the computer announced "EMERGENCY: HULL INTEGRITY BELOW FIVE PERCENT!" and just like that Fox was hit for the fourth and final time and his Arwing II went down as Krystal Screamed in despair "NO! FOOOOOOOX!" to which Fox spoke calmly over the radio "this is Fox to Great Fox two, I've been hit and am going down! I repeat I am going down, mayday! Mayday! I'm going down I repeat I am going dow…. *KZZT*" Fox's radio then went dead and the rest of his team where exposed to static as his radio died and to make thigs worse his transponder vanished as the falling Arwing was engulfed in a bright light followed by a very loud explosion causing Krystal to break down in tears to which a confused Peppy spoke over the radio "What the hell was that explosion? What the hell is goin' on? Krystal why are you?" Peppy never finished his sentence because Krystal said "Fox is… Fox is…." She took a deep breath in an effort to hold back the tears but inevitably failed and said through stifled sobs "Fox has been shot down! I cannot see his transponder, nor can I hear him over the radio all I see is a lot of smoke and debris, Fox is dead!" Hearing Krystal's sobs the whole Star Fox team went silent; Falco, angry at his failure to save Fox punched the console in his Arwing and said "God damn it, I KNEW I should have gone in there after him! Why? Wh... Why did it have to be Fox? Why not me instead?!" Fara broke down into tears like Krystal because she felt responsible for Fox's death and said "If I weren't such a weak loser, Fox wouldn't have had to save me! It's MY fault he died!"

Miyu Looked at her and said "No Fara it wasn't your fault, don't beat yourself up over it, Fox knew the risks but despite that he saved you am I right? So what we have to take from this is that at any given moment a pilot; be it civilian or military can fall on the battlefield and the only way we can get over it is by moving forward, not backwards; I think Fox would want that don't you? Come on let's finish off these jokers and return to the ship, Well Mrs McCloud, it looks like you are in charge now so; what are your orders?" Krystal took a deep breath and said "My orders are to eliminate every enemy and secure the area for a search and recovery mission; Peppy could you do me a favour?" hearing the sombre tone in Krystal's voice he said "yeah Krystal you name it and I'll see what I can do," Krystal gave a sad smile and said "could you take command of the team? I have to go and tell Markus what happened to his father; I am leaving this fight, Krystal Out." With that she turned off her radio, switched the arwing to autopilot, hugging herself as she began to cry softly at her loss.

Meanwhile elsewhere….

Two young Vixens were roaming the fields of their home planet when they heard an explosion and a crash; curious about what had just happened three of them began searching around as they found bits of debris scattered around the field to which one of them said "Come on Sakura! I could swear I heard it from over there! Let's go and investigate!" The other Vixen looked at her twin sister and eagerly said "Okay Paige I'll come but do you have to run so fast?" As they caught up with each other Paige picked up a fragment of metal with an unfamiliar logo on it and accidentally cut her hand on its jagged edge to which she said "ow that hurts! So sharp, wait; what is it and what's that logo mean?" Sakura ran over to her and said "oh jeez sis, you really are a klutz aren't you, here let me take a look at your hand." Paige placed the metal shard down and the ground and sat beside it as her sister; who was well versed in medicine, tended to her wound on her hand saying "you really need to be careful when you pick up strange things or you will get hurt by them; there all done." After bandaging up Paige's hand, Sakura looked at the logo and said "hey that logo looks like a Fox with wings; what do you think it means?" Paige looked at Sakura and said "I don't know but there is a load of metal shards around here; maybe one of them will have more information on it," They looked around at all of the metal shards and stumbled upon another piece that had writing on it

"Huh? Star… Fox? Wait there is another piece over here! It reads Arwing II, Arwing II? Hmm strange."

As they looked through the metal shards Sakura let out a yell "SIS! SIS! I'VE FOUND SOMETHING! GET OVER HERE NOW!" concerned that her sister was in danger Page sprinted over to Sakura and said "what's wrong sis?" to which Sakura pointed a trembling finger at something laying in the ground

To Be Continued…


	6. Chapter 6: A Unfamiliar Planet

Chapter 6: An Unfamiliar Planet

As Paige got to Sakura, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what her sister was pointing at; she looked at her sister before saying "is that… Is that a Fox? Wait a moment, maybe these pieces of metal have something to do with him?" Paige approached Fox and looked at his dog tags and read them "Fox McCloud? His name is Fox McCloud huh, well is he alive or dead?" Sakura placed her ear against his chest and took his right hand in hers before placing her fingers on his wrist for a few seconds before saying "he is alive sis but it appears he has a few injuries; probably from his crash-landing on this planet his aircraft is totalled, we need to get some help from the others to get him to our medical facility; hey Kari, come here!" A young vixen looking no older than seven years old ran over and said "What is it big sis?" to which Sakura replied "could you try and get some of the others to help us with this stranger? We need a stretcher of some sort to get him to the hospital where he can be helped; I just hope he isn't a danger to us." Kari nodded before running off to get help, leaving her big sisters to look after him, a few moments had passed before Paige spoke up and aid "hey, he looks kind of handsome don't you think?" Sakura looked at her sister and said "while I can admit that he is very good looking you have to realise that we are already betrothed to another, I am betrothed to Raenyorn while you are betrothed to his brother Raevorn, it also looks like he is betrothed to another; if that ring on his finger has anything to do with it."

Paige sighed before looking at Fox and said "Yeah, I guess you're right but still; we need to help this guy out because judging by the wounds that he has sustained from his crash he has at best two to three days left before he dies so let's make sure he survives his ordeal and get him back to his wife," she then watched as Fox's hand hit the grass and opened up revealing a locket In his grasp, being curious Paige opened up the locket and saw a picture of him, Krystal and Marcus in a family hug stood in front of what was presumably his aircraft to which Paige said "Oh, she looks so pretty and their son; he looks so cute, we HAVE to get him back to his family as soon as possible." Sakura nodded as two men approached with the stretcher that was going to get Fox some much needed medical attention, "Raevorn, Raenyorn, it was YOU guys that decided to help?" the Fox known as Raevorn nodded and said "yes Paige; your father has requested that we take our guest to the medical centre and that is what we are going to do," Paige looked at her fiancée and nodded before adding "please be careful with him; this guy has a family we need to return him to and with his wounds he needs critical care and attention, as for his aircraft; maybe our father can get it out of the field and have it repaired so he can eventually return." Raevorn nodded before gently placing Fox on the stretcher with his brother Raevorn and gently taking him to the hospital while Paige looked around for any of Fox's other personal effects.

Two days later…

"…ox, Fox? Hey FOX! It's time for you to wake up my son; it's not your time yet, you must return to Corneria to fight off the enemy attack and end the Lylat wars for good now… WAKE UP!" After hearing a familiar voice in his head Fox jerked up and cried out "Krystal! Marcus! No!" before realising that he was on an unfamiliar world; hearing Fox's distressed cries another vixen rushed in and said "hey are you alright? Calm down Mr McCloud, you're in no danger so relax or your wounds will reopen… Vesper, get in here now! Our guest is awake!" there was then a kind Voice replying to her saying "Okay Eilara, I'm here how is he?" The vixen known as Eilara looked up at the Fox that came in and said "he's fine honey, just a little bit lost and confused so I think it would be best if you talked to him and filled him in on the situation," the Fox nodded and sent Eilara out to get some food and drink for Fox while he had a chat with him.

After a few quiet moments, Vesper spoke up and said "So, you've had quite the spill haven't you sir? So tell me and please be honest because I'd hate to have you locked away as a potential threat to my people, what is your name and how did you get here?" Fox paused and looked at him before saying "I mean you guys no harm okay? My name is Fox McCloud of team Starfox and to be honest with you; I don't know how I got here, the last thing I remember was my Arwing II being shot down as I protected one of my new recruits for my team and being engulfed in a bright light, the next thing I know; I find myself laid up here on an unfamiliar planet surrounded by a lot of people who seem to be just like me, what is this place anyway and why am I here in a hospital bed?" Vesper paused for a second as he processed Fox's answer before saying "well it's nice to meet you Fox McCloud, my name is Vesper and you are on a planet called Celyse; You are in a hospital bed because my three daughters found you in a really bad way and you were close to death; were it not for the quick thinking of my daughter Sakura, you'd have died from your wounds so here is my next question; if you mean no harm then why do you have this on your person?" Vesper looked at Fox with a serious expression and held up the staff that Krystal gave him as a good luck charm before his unfortunate accident to which Fox said "Krystal's staff… Hey could you, y'know return that, because it has a lot of personal meaning to me as my wife gave it to me as a 'good luck charm' heh… I guess it wasn't such a lucky charm after all?" Vesper looked at him and said "this staff looks like the weapon that I have, its mechanics are the same and its energy patterns match that of our power supply, if I didn't know any better I'd say that this is a weapon from the old world from our place of origin, the planet Cerinia; our home world long lost to a cataclysmic event that destroyed the planet and it is said that only one of noble birth can wield this type of weapon, so who is your wife really Fox?" Annoyed at Vesper's disbelief Fox took a hold of his locket and opened it, showing him Krystal to which Vesper's face dropped and he said "It can't be… is that the princess of Cerinia? But how is she still alive? The planet was destroyed and its people wiped out!" Confused at what Vesper said, Fox cleaned out his ears before saying "Excuse me but did you just say that Krystal, my WIFE, is royalty?"

Vesper nodded before handing Fox the staff and bowing down to him saying "I'm sorry I doubted you Fox McCloud, I'll have my people get to work on your aircraft immediately! But in the meantime please consider having dinner with us once you are cleared to leave the hospital, Fox looked at Vesper confused and before he could say anything Vesper left his room promptly, angry at himself for doubting Fox's true intent. After a few moments of reeling from what he just learned about his wife; Fox went to sleep for a few hours only to wake up to three pairs of eyes staring at him around the doorframe to which he said "hey don't be shy, I won't bite so come and say hello would you?" after a few nervous shuffles from his three observers Fox was greeted by Paige, Sakura AND Kari; it was Kari who was brave enough to approach and sit on his bed, not breaking eye contact before shyly saying "is it true what my Papa says? That you are married to a princess of our people?" Fox looked at young Kari before saying "Yeah, that is what he tells me and just like you; I can scarcely believe it myself," then Paige came in and said "So… What's it like being married to a princess? Is it cool?" Fox nodded and looked up as Sakura approached and said "so you must be Sakura, the one who medically treated me saving my life; for that I am very grateful but I have to ask you… Why did you do it?" Sakura frowned and said to him "I saved you Mr McCloud because it is my duty and besides; I wanted to save you and I wanted to do so much more when I saw the picture of your wife and son, now get some rest Fox, nurses orders, okay Paige, Kari, time to let Mr McCloud get some rest, come on out you get." Sakura and Kari groaned slightly before agreeing and saying their goodbyes to Fox as Sakura left the room after they did and closed the door before having two guards posted outside of Fox's room to protect him from any assassins that may have wanted to kill him.

Meanwhile, back in the Lylat System…

"Come on Krystal! We have searched this place for days now and still no luck in finding him, maybe we should just accept that he is gone and carryon with our mission." Angry at the persistence of General Peppy, Krystal let out a little distressed growl; before snapping and saying "Y'know what General Peppy? SCREW YOUR MISSION! I've just lost my husband to an enemy attack and all you seem to care about is 'Corneria this' and 'the mission that', we have just lost our leader to a cowardly attack and you are telling us to get over it?! Tell me Peppy, how did you feel when you lost your wife? Did you feel like a part of your soul died or like your heart had just been ripped out of your chest while being squeezed right in front of your eyes until it stopped?" Peppy started to get riled up but took a deep breath and calmed down when he saw Krystal crying so he just let it go and said "I'm sorry Krystal I was in the wrong; I know how much you loved Fox and I can understand why you are so upset about it, I know because I was the same way when Vivian died from an illness; I hated myself for not being able to help her when she needed me the most, it was the same way when we lost Fox's father to the betrayal of Pigma; for months I wanted to kill him and smash him up into little bits of bacon, but then I realised that he would get what was coming to him and he did right after the Apparoid attack took him I was the one that fired the final shot that destroyed him but I felt empty inside afterwards." Krystal looked at Peppy and went to say something before Miyu radioed in and said "Krystal, I've found something but… you're not going to like it, I'll bring it on board and hand it to you on Great Fox II, Miyu out." With that Krystal rushed straight back to Great Fox II where she was met by a devastated look on Miyu's face as she held up Fox's name plate with tears in her eyes to which she handed Krystal the name plate; causing her to fall to her knees and embrace it with tears in her eyes. She then took the name plate to their quarters and placed it on the shelf where her staff once sat to which she had an idea "wait… I gave Fox my staff, maybe just maybe if I concentrate hard enough I will be able to find the staff and use it to see if Fox is alright! Well here it goes." Krystal got dressed in her old outfit that showed off her tattoos and a lot of her skin before turning off all ways to get in touch with her via the ship PA system and muted any alarm output points; she needed complete and utter silence.

As the hours passed Krystal got nowhere and was about to give up, that was until she got a ping from the staff, it was very weak but very distinct; she then got confused when she detected other staff weapons similar to hers, "Wh… What is going on?! Why can I sense other staff weapons like mine?" she sharpened her concentration before finally picking out the staff that Fox had and then tried to project herself into Fox's mind. "Fox… Fox can you hear me?" Fox woke up and looked around before saying "Kry… Krystal? Where are you and how are you in contact with me?" Krystal frowned at him and said "Have you forgotten already you handsome dummy? I am using my staff remember? I did tell you that with my staff you'd have me with you at all times," she wiped the tears from her eyes before continuing "I thought that I'd lost you in that blast Fox, it nearly killed me! So tell me; where are you and why can I sense other staff weapons similar to mine where you are?" Fox Chuckled and said "You wouldn't believe me if I told you… 'Princess Krystal'." Krystal frowned and said "what are you saying Fox? Did you hit your head or something?! Anyway please let me know where you are," Fox sighed and said "Okay Krystal, I am on a planet named Celyse with a bunch of Foxes similar to you and I and they said that you are a member of royalty, they say this because your staff can only be used by one of noble birth but from what I can glean from my own investigation it would appear that if this staff was given willingly to someone that was chosen by the original wielder it can be used by that person, sort of a pre-marriage gift in our case… Anyway, my arwing is shot to hell and I am recovering on some hospital so I'll be fine; now I know you don't want to hear this Krystal, but you need to continue the mission; I will re-join you soon hopefully it will be sooner rather than later, until then, good bye and I will see you soon…" with that Fox closed the link with Krystal and a few seconds later Krystal found herself perking up, Fox was alive and well! That was all she wanted now all that was left was to patiently wait for Fox's return to battle and she was looking forward to it.


	7. Chapter 7: Krystal's Determination

Chapter 7: Krystal's Determination

After Krystal got in touch with Fox; her heart felt as light as a feather and she breathed out a long sigh of relief, Fox wasn't dead and she was going to bring him back, no matter what so with that; still in her Sauria outfit Krystal headed up to the bridge of Great Fox II and called all the pilots of team Starfox up to her location; the first person to arrive was Slippy to which Krystal said "ah Slippy, just the man I wanted to see; could you do me a favour?" Slippy looked at Krystal and blushed slightly before saying "sure I can Krystal, what would you like me to do?" Krystal walked over to him with a sheet of paper and said "Could you make these adjustments to my Cloudrunner? I need them so I can take Marcus with me on my next trip; I have a lead where Fox may be and I know he is alive so if you would could you get on those adjustments after our meeting with the other team members?" Slippy nodded and began drawing up plans in his head when Fara walked in with her eyes still red and puffy from crying; Krystal looked at her sympathetically and smiled at her; before saying "Fara, don't be so downhearted about what happened with Fox ok? I will tell you this once and only once; it was not your fault so stop moping round, besides your tears are not needed because Fox is actually alive; not dead and before you ask how I know this let's just say that it is a hunch I have." Fara perked up a little and sat down in her designated seat as they all waited for the others to arrive.

About half an hour later everyone was on the bridge and Krystal began the meeting while facing stares from all of the men in the team to which she said "Yes I am in my old outfit and yes it is _very_ revealing but that is beside the point; we are all here because I have arranged a meeting for the team; as we all know, at about eight o' clock ship time; Fox McCloud was shot down and his Arwing II vanished, like all of you, I assumed that he was dead but I have just come into possession of some evidence that disproves that; Fox is alive and on some planet named Celyse, a fairly average sized planet in the neighbouring system of Solayse; it is the fifth planet from their sun and seems to be a colony of the people from my old home world Cerinia, I called this meeting today to announce my temporary leave from team Starfox while I track down Fox and this planet; Slippy will be making the modifications to my Cloudrunner so I can space fold for longer periods of time, I am also taking Marcus with me and I need one other volunteer to come with me so I am asking this; which one of you would like to come with me to help pick up Fox?" Before anyone could raise their hand Fara interjected, saying "I volunteer to come with you because I feel I still need to apologise to Fox for my ineptitude so please let me come!" Krystal nodded to which she said "Ok Fara you can come with me; Slippy could you modify Fara's ship too?" Slippy nodded to which Krystal said "right, that just leaves the rest of you to continue with General Peppy's mission to save the Lylat system; Falco that leaves you in charge of all of team Starfox's operations since you are the more experienced pilot, I would ask Peppy but he has other things that he needs to do. Everyone, from when I leave, Falco will be the squadron leader; so follow him as you would follow, either me, Fox or Peppy. With that closing statement I draw the meeting to a close, any questions?" no one replied to what Krystal said; so after that everyone left to do their own thing, that was apart from Fara; who found herself looking at the command console of Great Fox II imagining Fox was still stood there but she then shook her head dismissively and headed to the hangar where Slippy was hard at work modifying the arwings.

Four hours later

Slippy had finished the modifications to both Fara and Krystal's Arwings; he did some last minute checks of the flight systems before fuelling the aircraft up and running some simulations, when he finished his modifications and everything worked; he was very happy, he felt a sense of achievement before becoming overwhelmed with fatigue and fell backwards into a nearby seat just as Krystal and Fara walked in. When he saw Krystal he told her about the new systems installed in their Arwings, "Ok Krystal, I did the modifications as you requested; now I feel I should warn you about this, these new systems are strictly experimental and have not been flight tested; I mean the simulations worked fine but while you are in combat I don't know what will happen with the systems so just be careful okay?" Krystal nodded and while she was still wearing her old outfit from Sauria she jumped into the cockpit of her arwing and brought up the flight check menu and began her pre-flight checks saying "Okay Computer, let's do this."

"*Internal power to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*External power to **disable**…._Disabled_

*Primary weapons to **enable**…._Enabled_

*Secondary weapons to **enable** and **prime**…._Primed_

*Astrogation systems to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*Life Support to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*Deflector shields to **enable** and _Prime_

*Targeting systems to **enable**…. _Enabled_

*Alpha Interface to **enable**… _Enabled_  
*Beta Interface to **prime**… _Primed_  
*Twin Lasers to **enable**… _Enabled_

*Nova Bombs to **prime**… _Primed_  
*Starflight mode to **enable**…. _Enabled_

*All-range mode to **prime**…. _Primed_

_*Hyperspace fold system to __**prime… **__Primed_

_*interspatial navigation to __**enable… **__Enabled_

_*Multi-dimensional barrier to __**prime**_… _Primed_

_*Inertial dampers to __**enable…**__ Enabled _  
* **All Systems go**…. _Acknowledged, all systems are a go, Arwings primed and ready…_"

Hearing the final acknowledgement, Slippy gave Krystal the thumbs up as Fara boarded her Arwing nervously as Marcus, eager to travel with his mother through space for the first time climbed into her newly installed passenger seat behind her in the cockpit to which she said "okay Marcus sweetheart, buckle up because we are going on a wild journey with uncle Slippy's new inventions, it may be a little bumpy though." Marcus just smiled and buckled his seatbelt as the Arwing canopy closed as ROB announced "Cloudrunner II and Arwing III primed and ready for launch… will all personnel clear the hangar bay…" Slippy saluted Krystal and said to her "good Luck Krystal, and bring yourself, Fox and Fara home safely!" Krystal smiled and nodded before saluting back as Slippy left the hangar bay so it could depressurise and launch both Fara and Krystal into space to which Krystal said "This is Krystal McCloud reporting; All systems are online and working fine, both me and Fara have launched from Great Fox II's hangar bay successfully; requesting an escort…" ROB sent out Falco, Miyu, Katt and Bill to cover Krystal and Fara as they prepared to perform a space fold but no sooner had they left Great Fox II; Starwolf once again attacked them, pissing Krystal off "For Fucks sake! YOU GUYS AGAIN! Why can't you just piss off and leave us alone for a bit? We are on a rescue mission and you will NOT STOP US from carrying out our mission. So if you don't leave now; we will be kicking your tails back to whatever hellhole you climbed out of!" Wolf laughed manically and said "Oh that's rich coming from a weak willed woman such as yourself; I bet you were sobbing your little heart out when we killed your lover-boy!" Krystal got really angry before saying "look here you little whelp; I hate to break it to you but Fox is still alive and when we find him, we will chew you up and spit you out! I'm not the prissy, wimpy little woman that you recruited into your team out of desperation anymore! I am a fighter and you are my targets, Fara; enable your twin lasers, disable your inertial dampers, activate your stage two booster and follow my lead; we are going to take these fuckers out!" Fara nodded to which Fara quietly said to herself "I am gonna prove myself here or I won't be able to face Fox when I see him again," to which Krystal barked down the radio "Fara… I thought I told you NOT to think like that," surprised at what Krystal said Fara replied "oopsie, did I say that out loud?" Krystal snickered and said "No you silly girl; have you forgotten already? I'm a telepath; I can read your thoughts." Fara blushed and apologised before snapping herself out of her embarrassment to fight Starwolf. Their attacks were fierce and they forced team Starwolf back into a super-dense asteroid field; limiting their manoeuvrability "hey you're cheating!" Leon shouted to which Krystal just said "well it takes one to know one you cowardly lizard; where was your fair-play when you all attacked my husband together while he protected Fara?!" Leon snarled and said "I'm not a lizard you bitch! I'm a chameleon, Cha-me-le-on… get it right you stupid vulpine!" Krystal just taunted Leon over and over again to make him even angrier; causing him to make certain mistakes, before finally disabling his Wolfen while keeping his life support system operational so he didn't die in space she then focused her attack on Panther, but was much more brutal with him while still keeping his life support system operational; she then turned on Wolf who fought with vigour as Fara took on the unknown pilot that attacked her before and to her amazement she won the dogfight; but to her surprise, the unknown pilot just surrendered and didn't try to escape. Meanwhile; deep in the asteroid field, Krystal was fighting Wolf with ferocity as he countered her every move with precision but that wouldn't stop her; she was out for the hunt and doggedly chased Wolf all around the dense asteroids taking minor damage from the ones that hit her Arwing, then it happened; the unknown pilot on team Starwolf turned around and attacked Wolf alongside Krystal who was astounded at this turn of events, but not as startled as wolf who shouted down the radio "how dare you betray me Marianne! I was the one who gave you a place to stay! It's thanks to me that you can even fly again!" to which a very angry feminine voice replied "Fuck you O'Donnell! All you ever did was make me feel worthless! Even after I took out Fox McCloud, y'know your rival who you can NEVER best! If it weren't for me you wouldn't be fighting against Starfox right now. Hey y'know what take your shitty Wolfen back, I'd sooner die in space than work for you anymore." She then activated the Wolfen's self-destruct programme and sent it hurtling towards a nearby asteroid where it collided with the surface of the rock with a massive boom; sending a lot of debris Wolf's way to which Fara radioed in "Great Fox II, come in Great Fox II; this is Fara Phoenix requesting pickup of a defector from team Starwolf," ROB Acknowledged the request and sent Katt out to pick up Marianne in order to transport her to Great Fox II. Once that was done Krystal reported the all clear and said "this is Krystal McCloud; beginning calculations for Hyperspace fold," Fara followed suit and said "Fara Phoenix here; Hyperspace fold calculations complete… Locking in my navigation Vectors… Beginning hyperspace jump in five seconds…" Krystal did the same before adding "So long Great Fox II; we'll see you on the other side!" With those final words, Both Krystal and Fara jumped into Hyperspace and began their journey to Celyse and to rendezvous with Fox. As Fara and Krystal entered Hyperspace Miyu said "Man, those two are the most determined and dedicated pilots I have ever come across in my entire career as a pilot, I hope they make it." Falco nodded and before he could add anything to Miyu's words he was interrupted by an emergency call "Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! Great Fox II is under attack; hull integrity at sixty percent and falling!" Falco ran over to the console saying "how the hell did they get so close to us undetected?! And while I am at it… HOW IN LYLAT DID THEY TAKE FORTY PERCENT OF OUR HULL INTEGRITY IN ONE HIT?!" to which ROB replied "The enemy are using an unfamiliar weapon system of unknown origin…" to which Falco said "Great… Just fuckin' great, now what do we do? How can we fight against a weapon we have never encountered before?!" then with those words Great Fox II took another hit, "EMERGENCY! HULL INTEGRITY AT FORTY FIVE PERCENT!" to which Falco said "OK Starfox, evacuate from the ship and fight as best as you can, we need to stop Great Fox II from going down!"


	8. Chapter 8: Great Fox II goes down

Chapter 8: Great Fox Goes down

As the Arwings of the remaining members of Starfox flew out of the hangar they were thrust into a battle of an extreme magnitude; they were outnumbered and outgunned, wave after wave of enemy fighters swamped the team; forcing them into a fight for their very lives and to make things worse the enemy fleet was supported from behind by hundreds of battleships all being led by the flagship of 'the Regent' designated Dark Nova; A massive ship that dwarfed Great Fox II in comparison "Aw shit! How can we take that bastard out?" Falco said in frustration to which Miyu replied "I don't have a clue Falco, I mean; goddamn! Our arwings are so small compared to THAT!" No sooner had Miyu said that there was an evil laugh that hijacked their airwaves "Starfox…. Prepare to be destroyed! Once I take care of you the Lylat system will be mine!" to which Fay said "Over our dead bodies!" And all she got was "That proposal is… Acceptable! Prepare to die Starfox!" then the radio cut out as volley after volley of cannon fire, flew at them from all directions to which General Peppy said "Great Fox II; Began transformation sequence! ID Verification Hare Peppy PH-167-9X" ROB verified Peppy's identity and said "Verification complete… password required;" Peppy got a bit glassy eyed and said softly "The password is Vivian," ROB accepted the input and said "attention all arwings… Great Fox II is transforming… please clear the area…" no sooner had ROB said that all of team Starfox scattered as they heard the transformation alarm of Great Fox II. When they got to a safe distance a massive barrier surrounded the ship as the computer of Great Fox II announced that the transformation sequence had begun.

"_Transformation circuits engaged; port and starboard wing sections disengaged, initiating level one transformation… releasing all hull clamps, retracting all weapons…. Initiating level two transformation… hangar bays released; retracting habitation decks, locking down bridge section… switching to combat mode… transformation in four minutes, thirty seconds_" Falco looked around as the ship broke itself apart and reformed itself into what could only be described as multi-angular and arrow like, with the eight cannons retracted into the hull within what seemed like their own individual housing sections while the hangars had been pulled deeper into the belly of the ship with two new access points for all arwings, to which the computer announced _"locking down all hull clamps, rerouting defensive energy to all cannon sections and engaging secondary power source…. Shields and barriers active… Transformation complete…_ _combat mode enabled_" with that it began a laser bombardment of its own; taking out a few enemy destroyers by itself to which team Starfox breathed a sigh of relief and intensified their attack on the remaining enemy destroyers as they evaded the laser volley from the flagship but sadly their relief was misplaced because no sooner had they taken out the enemy battleships more of them emerged and focused all of their attacks on Great Fox II which unfortunately, lead to it being critically damaged and the computer of Great Fox II announcing its status, "EMERGENCY! HULL INTEGRITY CRITICAL, COMBAT SYSTEMS OFFLINE…REROUTING POWER TO HULL REINFORCEMENT SYSTEMS… SHIELDS OFFLINE…" As the computer finished its announcement ROB spoke over the radio and said "attention all arwings… Great Fox II is critically damaged… Great Fox II is critically damaged… Great Fox II is going down… All Arwings evacuate from the area… Great Fox II is going down…" As team Starfox watched Great Fox II crash-land on Fortuna they got annoyed to which Falco said "great… Fuckin' fantastic, attention all wings, Great Fox II has crash-landed on Fortuna and is deep in enemy territory, shit! How did they overpower the defence force? We need to fall back and regroup because one way or another we have lost this fight." Bill, frustrated at their current situation punched the computer of the Arwing that he was piloting and said "Now what do we do? With Corneria overrun and our mothership FUBAR how are we going to repair, rearm, refuel and maintain our ships? While we are at it, where can we land because, there isn't a single safe place in Lylat where we can escape to now."

Falco shook his head and said "I don't know Bill; but regardless of the situation, we have to survive no matter what; for the sake of Fox, Krystal, Fara and Marcus. For now let's try to find a safe place to land, even if it's outside the Lylat system; hell I'd even take Venom at this current moment in time, well at least the sea is no longer acidic and won't corrode the hull of our ships anymore." With that they all flew to Venom and took over one of Andross' old bases where they started repairing their arwings with what they could find. After a long pause Katt approached Falco and said "now what do we do Falco? With our mothership gone and friendly forces all but wiped out we are caught between a rock and a hard place; I propose that we reinforce our ranks and do what we can to recover Great Fox II, while we wait for the return of Fox, Fara and Marcus; hey! They might even bring in reinforcements from wherever they are; well at least that is what I believe, either way we should focus on recovering and planning a new strategy." Falco smiled at Katt before pulling her into an embrace saying "I like how you think Katt; I knew you had potential, I could see it when we first started working together before I joined Starfox." Katt hugged Falco back and said "well thank you handsome; anyway, I think we should all get some rest because our team is a little bit shaken up; once we have all rested and recovered let's all come together and figure out a rescue and recovery plan of our own." Falco nodded and with those last moments, both him and Katt went to bed together, sleeping peacefully.

Meanwhile, on route to Celyse…

As they flew through their interspatial corridor, Krystal got a sudden bad feeling in her heart and said to herself "Oh no, something bad has happened in the Lylat system, I just know it; oh I hope that my other vision hasn't come true…" no sooner had she said that, the last transmission of Great Fox II found its way to her radio _"attention all arwings… Great Fox II is critically damaged… Great Fox II is critically damaged… Great Fox II is going down… All Arwings evacuate from the area… Great Fox II is going down…" _Krystal got annoyed and shouted out "God damn it! What else could go wrong?" not realising that she had accidentally activated her radio and broadcasted her distress to Fara who also received the transmission shortly after Krystal's outburst to which she said "Oh for god sake… Well, it looks like the final attack from the enemy has begun. Without Great Fox II, Starfox is sunk; that is unless we find Fox and gather reinforcements to help us in battle." Krystal was amazed; not only was Fara making up a strategy to help Starfox get back into the fight but she was so calm and level headed to which Krystal said "Fara… are you feeling alright? I've never seen you so calm before; not only are you planning ahead but you are also calculating the best course of action to take."

Fara just chuckled and dismissed what Krystal had said before she responded "ok Krystal, we are reaching our co-ordinates now so I'd suggest switching to all-range mode, y'know; just in case we are spotted by hostile unknowns and engaged." Krystal nodded and, just as Fara had said, switched her Arwing to all-range mode as Fara did the same to which Fara said "we're entering the Solayse system now; switching Arwing to all-range mode…" then with that they exited the interspatial corridor and found a lot of debris around to which they immediately began a search for remnants of Fox's Arwing II in hopes of finding a clue as to his whereabouts, "Ok Fara, I'm beginning the search for Celyse, could you do a check for any potential hostile forces?" Fara acknowledged Krystal's' request and did a wide-range search; finding nothing but as soon as she was about to turn off her scanner both Krystal and Fara got a transmission from Vesper "Attention unidentified aircraft; you have entered a sacred place without authorisation, please identify yourself…" Shocked at the fact that they were spotted from seemingly nowhere Krystal cautiously replied "We mean no harm; we have just come to search for one of our lost team members, I am Krystal McCloud and in the other aircraft is my Wingman Fara Phoenix; we are looking for…"

"Fox McCloud, am I right?" Vesper interrupted to which Krystal's heart swelled up with joy as she said quietly to herself "Yes I knew he was alive, I just knew it!" she then shook her head before taking a deep breath and replying "that's right! How did you know?" there was a brief pause before Vesper said "I know because your last name is McCloud and he told me that you would be looking for him; you have clearance to land on Celyse, please follow the co-ordinates that I have transmitted to your navigational computers, Vesper Out." With that the radio went silent as the console beeped in her cockpit; she then activated auto-pilot on her arwing as she disabled her weapons system and waited to be brought to the planet; while all of this was going on, Fox was relaxing in the field where he crash-landed, with Paige, Sakura and Kari who never left his side; acting like bodyguards to him; after a few minutes of him roaming the field with his guardians Vesper sought out Fox and told him that someone named Krystal had arrived and was on the way to the planet and no sooner had Vesper said that Fox saw two familiar Arwings make planetfall to which Vesper said "I guess this is them now" No sooner had Fox spotted the descending Arwings he got a short range communication from Krystal "Fox! You're alive! I knew you would make it, hang on I'm coming down to get you!" she then landed about half a mile away from Fox along with Fara; who wiped a few tears from her eyes before landing beside Krystal.

As Fox approached Krystal sprinted right over and jumped into his arms crying tears of joy as Fox held her tightly saying "I've missed you Krystal; it's been too long since we have had this time together; I'm so glad you are here!" Krystal dried her eyes and hugged him before saying "I'm not the only one who is eager to see you again; I have two others with me, one is Fara and well…" Fox looked confused as to what Krystal had said; that was until he heard a familiar voice "papa, is that you? It's been so long and I've missed you!" Fox looked up at the cockpit of Krystal's Cloudrunner and saw two familiar eyes land a familiar white tuft of hair looking at him; to which his son Marcus, jumped out of the Arwing cockpit and onto his back making Fox grunt and say "oof! You've gotten bigger haven't you Marcus? Daddy's so proud of you and of Mommy too, I'm glad you all made it here in one piece, I erm… hehe, wasn't so lucky," no sooner had she stopped hugging Fox Krystal turned around to find herself looking at three pretty young vixens bowing down to her, along with a few other foxes and vixens that saw her to which she said "Fox… What is going on? Why are they bowing to me?" to which Fox looked at her before saying "they think you are their long-lost princess and the shocking thing is this, it may be true because in my time here, while I waited for you to come and pick me up I studied some of the ancient texts and read a few reliefs on the walls of the many ruins that populate the planet, it's interesting really because I wouldn't have been able to get into the ruins without your, sorry… I mean our staff." Krystal just looked at him confused and said "you ARE joking right? There is no way in Lylat that I'm a princess," to which Vesper just put it bluntly "with all due respect your highness it is the truth and you cannot deny it; like you, I am of noble birth and also just like you and your husband; I have a staff weapon just like yours. If you don't believe me then please follow me to the nearby ruins; don't worry you'll be safe here because as long as you are here; regardless of whether you believe me or not; my family will protect you and your companions." Krystal nodded and followed both Fox and Vesper to the nearby ruins that had the language of Cerinia telling the story of a descendant from the Cerinian royal family that had wandered the galaxy for generations, fighting virtually impossible battles and becoming victorious would eventually return and with a group of warriors would eliminate evil from the galaxy once and for all. To the surprise of Krystal, the prophecy matched that of her life story, with all of the battles, trials and tests she had endured… INCLUDING THE BATTLE WITH ANDROSS… Krystal was shaken by this, was she royalty after all?


	9. Chapter 9 Reawakening part 1

Chapter 9: Reawakening Part 1

A few days later, after they landed, Krystal and Fara started to enjoy the idyllic surroundings of Planet Celyse; it was rich in culture and resources, dotted around the green expanses of the fields and forests were many ancient ruins of a bygone era; it made Krystal go a bit misty eyed as she remembered her old planet that was destroyed, Celyse felt like a proper home to her and she didn't want to leave but as the fates would have it; she had to, in order to save Lylat and protect the civilians. It was duty and her goal to help her steadily growing family protect both the Lylat and Solayse systems from any harm. Noticing that Krystal was miles away Fox grinned and sneaked up behind her and tickled her sides making her jump and in a response to that Krystal turned around and slapped Fox across the face, "Owwww… what did ya do that for Krystal?" to which she replied "Hmph… you deserved that Fox for making me jump like that; I very nearly came out of my top! In case you haven't noticed, I am wearing the outfit I wore on Sauria when we first met and there isn't much fabric to cover me up." To which Fox said "then why did you wear it? I mean I don't mind seeing you in it again but you've known me long enough to realise that whenever I see an opening I take it but still," Krystal got a mischievous glint in her eyes and said "oh really Fox? Then you realise that I will get you back for what you did and you will never know when I will do it; it could be today, it could be tomorrow heck it could even be a few weeks from now you get me handsome?" she then winked at Fox making him blush.

There was a little giggle behind them as Kari had observed their little exchange and said "Hey you two must love each other an awful lot; my mommy and daddy do that to each other all the time, however my mommy has the higher score, she always gets the upper hand on daddy." Krystal crouched down to Kari's level and smiled before saying "Yeah, Fox and I love each other a lot; after all I owe him my life because when we first met I was ironically trapped in a crystal, by a very bad man and Fox went through hell and back to save me; granted he was a jerk shortly after the Apparoid attack and made me leave the team because he was 'worried about my safety', I hated him for a few years after that but then he surprised me by giving me a massive apology and inviting me back to the team; to which I said that I'd come back on the condition; that we stay beside each other no matter what, after that we grew close again and got married; about three years later we had a son and now we are once again, after ten years, we thrust into a battle with an unknown aggressor who shot Fox down making him crash-land here on Celyse, to which I decided to try and find him so we could once again live in peace."

After she told Kari what had happened to them all that time ago; Krystal stood up and embraced Fox who apologised and embraced her back, Kari looked at Krystal after processing what she was told and said "so a really nasty guy has attacked your home and is causing you pain? I understand, I guess I may have an idea who is doing all of this nasty stuff to you; uh-huh! Don't worry my family will help you beat up the bad guys and get you home safely!" with that Little Kari ran off skipping as she went to tell her dad what Krystal told her.

Listening to Kari's story, Vesper frowned and said "If that is true then we have no time to waste; we need to bring back Krystal's memories to help her fully understand the plight of her people, if it is 'him' then both the Solayse and Lylat systems are in grave danger; get Fox's aircraft repaired and upgraded because he is going to need all the power he can handle plus more! Sakura, Paige, would you please bring me Fox both and Krystal; there is much we will need to discuss with them." Paige and Sakura nodded before setting off to pick up both Fox and Krystal leaving Vesper to think; "If it truly IS 'the regent' then we are in danger; all of us, I guess it's time for us all to go on a' journey of awakening', I must prepare. We also need to increase our forces strength; just like Starfox is, Soma, Audun, it's time to get airborne again." Two other Foxes saluted and nodded before going out to gather up their reinforcements and repair their long-dormant aircraft.

Meanwhile on the Amythyst fields….

Fox and Krystal were laying down on the grass looking up to the skies with Fara sat up in a tree doing the same just above them to which she said "Fox, Krystal, do you think that we'll ever get back to the Lylat system? I'm kind of worried about the others," to which Fox said "don't worry Fara; Great Fox II can handle them so just relax okay?" Krystal got up sadly and said "Fox, didn't you know that Great Fox II has gone down, It crash-landed on Fortuna and our team has been scattered around the Lylat System once again; Corneria is gone, so is Fichina even the asteroid field is swamped with enemy almost every planet in the Lylat system is occupied by enemy forces." Fox jerked up and said "WHAT?! Great Fox has gone down? But how!" to which Fox heard Sakura say as she approached them "the enemy that has scattered your team is known only as 'the Regent', a very malevolent entity that has done something like this once before," Krystal looked at her and said "When was this?" Sakura sighed sadly to which Paige continued the story "you of all people should know this Princess Krystal of CERINIA; this 'Regent' was the one who destroyed your homeworld and killed almost all of your people, the remnants of which are now living on this planet; Celyse."

Sakura sat down beside them and said "look, I know you don't believe us Krystal and I can understand why you don't but I can prove to you that you are who we say you are; please come with me, both of you because it is very important." Krystal gave her a look as if to say 'I don't believe you' to which Sakura said just humour me for a moment and follow us to the temple of dreams where you will go on a journey of your subconscious with your husband at your side and we will show you that it's true." Krystal hesitantly agreed and followed both Paige and Sakura while Kari walked with Fox and his son; taking a few small and discreet glances at Marcus to which Fox smiled and said quietly so only Kari could hear "hey Kari, are you interested in my son?" Kari blushed and went all shy before nodding; making him smile before saying "Hey Marcus, why don't you and Kari go and play together later?" Marcus looked at Kari who blushed and went even shyer as she hid behind Fox's leg to which Marcus said "ok dad, I will," Fox smiled before scruffing up Marcus' white hair saying "okay son, but you also need to look after her; she is only seven after all and you are ten; you are the grown up while I am alone with mommy as I look after her," Marcus nodded before continuing to walk beside his dad while also sneaking glances at Kari. About half an hour later, Fox arrived at the temple of dreams where Krystal was waiting; dressed in ceremonial gowns barefoot, to which she said "Fox; I don't know about this, If I am truly the Princess of Cerinia will you still love me? Even more so, should I 'awaken' as the Princess; will I still have the memories of you and me? Or what about our son? will I remember him?" Looking at Paige with concern on her glassy eyes she asked "well? Will I remember my life as it is now or will I forget everything?" Looking at the concern in Krystal's eyes Paige sighed before saying "Look Krystal, just because you are going to have an 'awakening' doesn't mean that you'll forget your life up to this point, it just means that you will remember everything that you have forgotten from your past; so you will still be Krystal McCloud, just with a few extra memories so don't worry about that okay?"

Krystal, still worried about it nodded before going over to Fox and hugging him tightly saying "no matter what happens Fox; Know that I will always love you and am looking forward to living a longer and fulfilled life with you after all of this is over." Fox Chuckled and embraced Krystal again before saying "you are saying this like you are having life-threatening surgery; It's not like they are going to cut you open and start poking around inside of you while you are awake right? Just go for it and know that I am here for you no matter what." Krystal chuckled, dried her glassy eyes and said "you certainly have a weird way with words Fox; okay I'm ready, so let's do this." Paige nodded and began the ritual; almost immediately Krystal found herself wandering around her mind in a dream-like state, when she got used to it she found herself on a field of lush green grass with beautiful pink and blue skies; as she looked around she found herself wandering into a familiar town with people going about their day-to-day lives, as she wandered around more she found herself drawn to a castle to which she said "I Know this castle, but where and how do I know about it?"

She walked towards the castle and suddenly a feeling of dread started to crush her chest making it hard for her to breathe but still she continued into the castle courtyard where she saw a young, familiar looking blue vixen playing around with a staff weapon; she then heard a stern male voice say

"KRYTSAL! What have I told you about playing with your mother's staff?! Put it back and go to your room!" to which the young Vixen pouted and stormed off back into the castle, her vision then faded out for a few seconds before fading in somewhere else in the castle; as her vision cleared up she saw that same little Vixen place the staff back on the mantelpiece before sitting on the floor cross-legged staring at the weapon in awe before saying "one day when I get older, mommy's staff will be mine; after all she did tell me that when I am older she would teach me to use it." Then there was a very kind and gentle sounding female voice calling her name "Krystal, Krystal? Where are you sweetie? Come to mommy because we need to have a little talk;" the little vixen eagerly ran off to greet her mother and as she left the room Krystal's vision once again faded out and faded in elsewhere again.

Once again as her vision cleared up Krystal found herself in another room where the little vixen had hidden behind a pillar near the castle throne room as the man from earlier, presumably this little girl's father was talking to a very sinister looking person as she overheard the conversation "listen here brother; I am not giving up this throne, our father named me the rightful heir to Cerinia, not because I have a lot of power but because I care about the people of this lovely planet, I care about my wife and I love my young daughter Krystal; you are so full of hatred and greed that father decided to banish you from Cerinia for your crimes against the people and your multiple attempts on the lives of my wife and daughter; I will tell you one last time, get off of this planet and resume your banishment from this system! BEGONE YOU TREACHEROUS COWARD!" the sinister looking man didn't like this and said with bile and venom in his voice "mark my words brother; you will pay for this with the lives of your family, your subjects and all of this pathetic world!" he then stormed out and left the planet; but then Krystal noticed something about the man on the throne, he was wounded and bleeding heavily to which the little girl ran over obviously seeing what had happened and said "Daddy you're hurt! Here let me get the doctors, Help! Help! Doctor! My daddy's been hurt bad! Please help him! PLEASE!" seeing this, Krystal's eyes began to tear up to which she found herself involuntarily saying "daddy, please! Don't die! I need you!" But strangely enough the young vixen said what Krystal said at the same time before suddenly turning to her with tears in her beautiful eyes and saying in an angry tone "Why didn't you save him? You could have saved him that day but you didn't so why?!" Krystal looked directly at this little girl with shock and surprise before saying "Wait are you talking to me?" to which the little girl glared at her and said "of course I am glaring at you! Who else is here apart from you and me?" she then barged past Krystal and ran off

To be continued… 


	10. Chapter 10: Reawakening Part 2

Chapter 10: Reawakening part 2

As this little girl ran past her Krystal was compelled to follow; how was this little girl talking to her when she was just there as an observer? She started to find it a little bit spooky but still she carried on, as she left the throne room her vision once again faded and when it came back she was stood at the grave of the fallen king; she felt her heart grow heavy and sad, why was she feeling this way about someone she never knew? Looking around she swathe girl once again staring at her with malice but at the same time forgiveness to which the girl said "don't you get it yet? These feelings, these emotions; don't you find it strange that you of all people are feeling them? Use your head Krystal." The girl then faded away to which Krystal cried out involuntarily "I don't understand what is going on! Why am I seeing this? Please come back I need to know more!" once again her eyesight faded and she found a more grown up version of this little girl sitting next to what was presumably her mother and suddenly something seemed familiar; she experienced this same moment when she was younger then it finally hit her, she was traveling through her old life; back before the time she went to investigate the distress signal from Sauria "No this can't be true! It's not possible!" the little girl approached her and said "so you do remember some things then? Like is aid before Krystal; that day we could have saved father of we didn't hide there for so long, he died because of us or rather he died because of you. After all, what you are seeing right now is the old you; a ghost from the past as it were, more specifically YOUR past; you put this out of your memory because you didn't want to believe it were true now can you understand why I am angry?" As Krystal dropped to her knees the scene around her faded to black until all that was left was her and younger self and to make the torture worse the younger version of her brought up the death of their mother and subsequently the planet of Cerinia, "Don't you remember? When dad died our mother fell gravely ill; her heart, broken by the loss of her husband and subsequently the loss of her daughter who ran away; seizing the chance that had just presented itself the 'Regent', our uncle seized the core crystals of planet Cerinia, releasing centuries and centuries of suppressed evil intent, which eventually possessed those who chose to remain on Cerinia making them turn on each other which; in turn forced our people into a very powerful civil war that raged for years before finally destroying the planet, at the time you escaped as you were running from your responsibilities but what makes it worse is that our mother knew you would do that so she sneaked the staff into your belongings before waving a sad good bye to you and no sooner had you escaped, the planet was destroyed leaving you the only remaining member of the royal family that was still alive and remained pure of heart…. That was until you turned your back on Fox, who loved you with all of his heart and you betrayed him by joining Starwolf. Fox was distraught and he very nearly stopped flying because of you but it was Falco that picked him up and dusted him off."

Krystal was upset at what she had heard from her younger self; feeling guiltier than ever Krystal looked at her young self and said "What can I do now? How can I make amends for what I did to Fox and everyone else?" The young Krystal inhaled deeply as she closed her eyes before breathing out and slowly opening them with a much kinder expression to which Krystal bowed her head with tears in her eyes; only to have her head tilted up gently by her chin by the now grown up version of herself dressed in her old Sauria outfit; then the other Krystal gave a sweet smile before saying "First of all, you need to accept me; the side of you that you have forgotten and take me back into your heart, then you need to purify yourself of all the hatred you have harboured over the years and accept your new quest." Krystal looked at herself and said "How do I do that?" The reply she got from that was "to complete this dream quest you need to embrace your true self and this journey will be over."

Krystal still didn't get it to which her other self just sighed and embraced her, making her cry and just like that Krystal woke up to a very concerned Fox holding her hand in his and supporting her head with his other hand as he said "Come on Krystal, hang in there! You can do it, I know you can!" with that she opened her eyes slowly and sat up looking confused and lost to which Sakura said "how are you feeling Krystal, do you remember what happened to you in the past?" Krystal took a deep breath and stood up slowly as Fox supported her, to which she said "yes Sakura I do remember everything; I am even going to start making amends for my inexcusable acts in the past but firstly, Fox I am truly sorry that I betrayed you and joined Starwolf just to hurt you; I am also sorry about taking your will to fly from you after taking your drive to do the right thing away. I am so sorry to my parents for being a coward and running away, instead of helping out and taking responsibility for my actions and I am sorry for all those who have fallen in battle around me due to my cowardice; I really hope can be forgiven for all of that." As Krystal spilled her innermost feelings to those around her she began to cry only to get a loving hug from Fox, Marcus and Fara who said "Look Krystal; I don't know what you went through in the past but you need to move on from that while still remembering what you did back then so no more of that self-pity okay? We got a war to win."

Looking at Fox; Krystal gave a shy smile before saying to him "so it er… turns out that I am royalty after all, heh! Who'd have thought it?" Fox chuckled and hugged her before saying "well your majesty, I guess that I have to start acting all noble and that," to which Krystal replied "Oh no you don't Fox, you just act like you normally act… like a complete and total dork sometimes; I may be a princess but I am still your wife and I am still Krystal McCloud, despite my royal title there will be no acting all posh and stuck up or I will punch you in the nose." Fox blushed at the realisation that he was married to a princess and just as Krystal promised she got him back by pouring freezing cold water down his back and laughed as he leapt at least three feet in the air with surprise to which she said "I told you sweetheart, I told you that I'd get you back, now no more pranks on each other, right? Well at least not until this war is over oh and one more thing Fox…" Krystal leaned in close to Fox before whispering in his ears "By the way honey; once this is over I want to have another baby, y'know to give Marcus someone to look after as a big brother; after all I am sure he feels lonely when his parents aren't around… by the way where IS Marcus?" to which Fox replied oh, he's just playing with Kari in the nearby par… wait did you just say you want to have another bab…" Krystal placed her hand over Fox's mouth and shushed him saying "Not so loud Fox okay? I am sure that these people don't wish to know what we get up to when we are at home." Kari and Sakura just looked at Krystal and laughed politely before saying "Oh don't worry your majesty, we are used to that type of thing here because our parents always talk about it around us," Krystal smiled and said "Oh, alright then," before openly flirting with Fox in front of them making him blush.

Three hours later…

After Krystal's awakening both her and Fox decided to have some alone time together as they soaked up the lovely bluey-pink hue that was spread out across the very canvas like starlight sky while they laid down on the grass looking up to which Krystal said "the skies are very beautiful here aren't they Fox?" to which, without thinking Fox said "yeah the skies are beautiful, but not as beautiful as you Krystal." Krystal gasped in surprise as Fox blushed and said "I er… hmm, well, oh who am I kidding? I cannot hide how I feel about you now can I? It was because of that I hurt you a while back and I still haven't forgiven myself for it." Krystal chuckled and said "oh don't be so melodramatic Fox; if I have forgiven you for it then you can forgive yourself for it too, after all you have STILL kept the promise that you made to me on the day of our wedding and I am thankful for that; so stop being so negative about yourself because you have no reason to be that way… consider it my royal order; forgive yourself for what you did and we will never hurt each other like that again, deal?" Fox pushed himself up onto his elbow to lie on his side so he could look at Krystal, who was still dressed in her Sauria outfit and blushed for a bit as he stared at her curves, before chuckling and saying, "very well your highness; princess Krystal of Cerinia…" to which Krystal, joining in on the fun said "very good; sir Fox Mcloud of Corneria… you shall join me in my bedchambers later and we shall sleep together, understood?" Fox got up and bowed to her to which She got up and curtsied, the there was a short pause before they both burst into fits of laughter and embraced each other to which Krystal said "I shall never get used to the fact that I am royalty, it's just so…. Perplexing; I still keep on saying to myself that I can't be royalty but then I see the staff and my tattoos and the truth dawns on me so what now Fox? Shall we go and find Kari and Marcus because it's getting late." Fox nodded and with Krystal started looking for the two children.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the palace…

Paige and Sakura are walking down the hallways with their betrothed and are heading to dinner to which Raevorn began to come onto Paige, making her feel uncomfortable to which after a while she snapped and said "look here Raevorn, I don't appreciate you draping yourself all over my body! We may be engaged to be married but that doesn't mean you can lol all over me! GET OFF NOW!" with that Paige elbowed Raevorn in the stomach before saying "do that again you creep and I will end the engagement with or without my father's permission!" she then pushed Raevorn away cursing and swearing under her breath. Seeing this Sakura instantly knew that her sister wasn't happy with the engagement to Raevorn and at the same time Sakura found that she was also unhappy with the circumstances surrounding her forced engagement to Raenyorn; she wanted to choose her own husband and her own lifestyle but unlike Paige who was fiery and free-spirited, Sakura was quiet and reserved; whenever confrontation came her way she just avoided it however Paige didn't; she went in with her fists flying, she had a very short temper and after what Raevorn did to her; she was seething for the rest of the day much to the point that as soon as she finished eating she excused herself from the table abruptly and stormed off somewhere.

As she walked on she felt the rage coil up inside her like a snake waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting prey; when she got to a large clearing Paige's anger erupted from inside of her chest and she aggressively started to train, hearing her angry cries Fox looked at Krystal who nodded and handed him the staff saying "do whatever you need to do to help her, I'll go and talk to her father." Fox nodded and activated the staff as he headed towards Paige's venting area and no sooner had he walked within range Paige blindly attacked him with sheer ferocity and abandon; it was like she couldn't see that it was Fox that she was fighting with, but instead of getting angry and fighting back Fox went on the defensive observing Paige's expressions as she fought to which he found her crying bitterly as she attacked with ferocity; what a confusing sight this was for him, a vixen about five years younger than him dressed in revealing clothes as she fought him, crying bitterly for some reason; so to help her out by letting her release her pent up rage and frustration; he just let her attack him until she tired herself out and as soon as she collapsed from exhaustion he caught her gently, being careful where he put his hands and sat her down on the ground to which she immediately huddled her knees against her chest with her arms around them as she cried to which Fox, hesitantly put his hand in between her shoulder blades and stroked her gently to which she broke down even further and cuddled up to Fox saying between bitter cries "It's not fair! Why must I be arranged to marry that pervert Raevorn? I would rather choose my own husband and lifetime companion! I want someone who would let me retain my independence and not be the always obedient wife who just cooks him food and cleans the house while raising children! I'm a warrior, not a slave!" Seeing Paige so upset distressed Fox slightly, he could never deal with crying women and since she had bared her soul and innermost feelings to him it made him feel awkward; he then remembered what Krystal said "_do what you can to help her,_" and decided to endure the awkward situation so Paige could get all of her frustrations out in the open while he listened

To be continued…


	11. Chapter 11: Of the maidens' hearts

Chapter 11: Of the maidens' hearts

While Fox kept an eye on Paige, Krystal went directly to Vesper and explained the situation to him "While it is not my business to interfere in your political affairs I cannot stay silent about this, you see; it appears that Paige is really upset about something because she is kicking the shit out of my husband in frustration; thankfully Fox is just letting her do it without fighting back so that she can blow off steam and from what I can tell from their exchanges; she is really angry about being in an arranged marriage, now you probably have your reasons for doing this but when I see one of my subjects in such a bad way I have to step in; so tell me what is going on and bear in mind that you cannot lie to me so please explain, tell the 'princess' that you revere so much what is going on." Stunned at Krystal's audacity towards him, Vesper went to have a go at her with the 'you can't tell me how to run my kingdom' spiel but stopped when he saw the angry look on his princess' face and relented, "I know that she hates it and I hate it too but there is no other way to go about it; the father of Raevorn and Raenyorn is a man of very high status comparable to my own, he runs a kingdom on another planet and has a massive army waiting in the wings; if I could, I would tell him where to go but relations with that man's kingdom have been tense to say the least; one day he just came to my planet with a fraction of his army and made a threat, 'I want your planetary resources to strengthen my armies, I'd rather discuss something with you in an amicable way so we don't have to fight; but if you refuse to agree with me, I will take your resources by force if necessary'; he then flexed his military weapons and laid waste to a small village of innocent people, no one was spared; not even children, he then went to leave so I pleaded with him to make an arrangement; he paused for a moment before seeing my daughters tend to the wounded survivors of the attack and said 'maybe we can come up with an agreement; give your two eldest daughters to my two eldest sons as brides and we will not continue our attack on your people,' I had to do it or my whole kingdom would have been wiped out."

Krystal sensed the sincerity in his heart before frowning and saying "you are a pathetic little man with no backbone… but I guess it couldn't be helped, you chose to sacrifice the happiness of your two daughters in an effort to save your people; that's admirable but foolish, I'm sure that you could have come up with something so tell me, why are your forces so weak?" starting to get offended vesper started to get abrupt with Krystal who just took it and after a while he calmed down and saw the tentative look Krystal was giving him to which he relented again and said "when Cerinia was destroyed our people lost their hope and fell into despair; the only thing that would have helped them strengthen their resolve was if their princess was there with them but alas; you were missing presumed dead, with that thought in their head their hearts sank and they just gave up, over the past few years I did all I could to help the people out of their depression and it worked… For a time but then we were attacked by another force and got decimated by them; I think their leader was called Andross or something, he attacked our planet with some technology that we had never seen before, our forces barely chased him away; we defeated them and that came with a heavy price and it was at that moment that Raevorn and Raenyorn's father seized the chance to take over our home. I know you think I am cowardly but is there another way?" Krystal paused for a moment before saying what if… this is hypothetical by the way, but what if my team and I run interference for you while you strengthen your ranks? Would you then be able to fight back the attack with my team supporting you from the skies?" Vesper paused for a moment before saying "but princess, can you fight off hundreds of enemy with just the three of you?" Krystal got a really sly grin on her face before saying "leave it to me, I think I have a solution." She then left and found Fox who was comforting the now sleeping Paige; he looked exhausted but Krystal was really proud of what fox did for her and said "sorry to break up this touching moment Fox, but I need you to help me with something, because I may have a solution to the dilemmas of Paige and her sisters."

Getting a glimpse of hope in his eyes he picked up the sleeping Paige and while Krystal helped him get Paige onto his back he said "So Krystal, I'm all ears; what can we do to help these people?" Krystal paused to him and told him that it would be better if Vesper told him what he told her to which Fox agreed and carried Paige on his back all the way to her father's castle; after walking for about an hour and a half they finally arrived at the throne room but as Fox went to place Paige down gently in a chair her grip tightened around him and she murmured in her sleep "please don't leave me here Fox, I want to stay with you and the princess." Fox rolled his eyes and sighed before looking at Krystal apologetically; Krystal giggled slightly before taking a breath and signalling him that it was okay to hold her; which he did throughout the meeting with Vesper who said "it appears that one of my daughters have grown quite attached to you, so what are you going to do now Fox? After all, now that she has taken a shine to you it appears that she won't go through with her arranged marriage regardless of what I say." Fox apologised profusely to Vesper to which he just raised his hand regally with his eyes closed before taking a breath and looking at Fox before saying "thank you for what you have done for Paige; but now I have a dilemma of my own, my enemy has basically laid claim to my two beautiful daughters and now that she seems to want to be with you it is only a matter of time before she refuses the arranged marriage and the enemy will attack my kingdom and all of the people in it, so how can we resolve this?" Fox looked at Vesper with the same look Krystal gave him and conveyed the same message that Krystal did while adding "If you can fix and upgrade my Arwing II, I can fly in your skies; eliminating any threats from above with Fara and Krystal, but you need to support us with a few pilots of your own," Paige stirred and said sleepily "I can fly an aircraft and so can Sakura; I'm sure that Sakura and I could help you in the skies… that is if you allow us to do so father," vesper paused for a moment then said "okay Paige, if it comes to that; I will let you and your sister fly, I will also join the fight." Overhearing what her husband said Eilara added "I will also fly, I won't let my family down in battle; anyway it has been a while since I have fought an enemy, I was beginning to miss it." With four extra wingmen Fox's eyes lit up; he told himself that it would work, Krystal sensed his excitement and looked at him before nodding in agreement before adding "I hope it doesn't come to that but if it does, we need to be ready; I'll let Fara know about plan B, that just leaves plan A," Eilara looked at Krystal inquisitively and said "what is plan A then?" Krystal racked her brain but came up with nothing before becoming a little downhearted to which Fox, seeing the concerned expression on her face said "first we try to resolve this peacefully; I am sure there is a non-violent solution we can come up with… Hmmm; Oh I know! How about some trade agreement? They said they needed the resources didn't they? So why not trade for them?"

Vesper paused for a moment but decided against it saying "Fox, while I commend you for trying out a non-violent solution; I already tried that and he refused, the only way is to chase him away from the planet; so I am going to have to beseech you, I hate this option but the way I see it; there is no peaceful solution this, not this time." Seeing the distress on her husband's face Eilara said "It's true Fox; we have tried everything, offering them half of the planet and half of the resources but they refused and demanded our daughters as severance pay or war would breakout and it would be a war that we would not win; the people are tired of fighting, all they want is to live peacefully; albeit as some form of slaves, just so they wouldn't have to fight anymore; I beg of you Fox, Princess, please help us fight." Fox nodded and agreed to the request but unknown to them; their exchange didn't go unnoticed and Krystal sensed the spy a bit too late to which she said "Fox, I think we were heard by the enemy; Lord Vesper, Lady Eilara, we know have a time limit to prepare; because one of the enemy overheard our conversation." Fox grew angry and it got worse when he saw the fear on Paige's face; it was then he realised who had overheard them and gave pursuit, only to lose them.

Three days later…

After a tense three days; Fox found no sign of the spy and was about to give up until he saw Paige looking at him; still with fear in her eyes "Fox what are we going to do? If the enemy finds out about our discussion we are toast," shortly after she said that Raevorn approached being all nice and kind while apologising to Paige for his behaviour three days ago but Fox somehow saw through his façade; however he didn't do anything about it, he just stared at him menacingly while he thought to himself "_I know it was you spying on us you little snake and when I prove it; I will do everything to protect these people,; even if it means eliminating you…_" feeling the hostile intent from Fox, Raevorn looked at him with an evil glint in his eye and backed away; to which Paige, noticing the look on Fox's face said "So you think it was him that spied on us that night Fox?" Without thinking Fox nodded making Paige worry to which he sensed her distress and placed a kind hand on her feminine shoulder saying "don't worry Paige; Krystal And I will do everything in our power to protect you and your sisters, but I can't be with you twenty-four hours a day; there will be times when you are alone so please be careful alright?" Paige nodded and walked away but Fox couldn't help but feel worried about Paige, Sakura, and Kari's life; sensing Fox's distress Eilara approached him attentively and said "excuse me Mr McCloud, it would appear that something is troubling you; are you worried about my daughters?" Fox turned around and went down on one knee in a bow to Eilara before saying "Lady Eilara, I think I know who spied on us that night and that same person just approached both Paige and I; to make things worse for us, when he got here I could feel nothing but malice from him so yeas my lady; I am worried, anyway; how did you know that I was here? And ow did you know that something was troubling me?" to which Eilara placed her feminine hand on his shoulder and said "oh, it's quite simple actually; it's written on your face and also; Princess Krystal told me about it, Fox, no matter what happens to my daughters from here on out; you have the support of both Vesper and myself, we're counting on you Starfox; *tee-hee!*" with that giggle Eilara walked off waving her hand behind her but before she left completely she said, "Y'know Fox; if you are truly worried about my daughters, why don't you learn a few extra skills like medicine? You never know when it will come in handy, but don't worry about how long it will take because we have ways of speeding up the learning process here on Celyse." With that she left leaving Fox a little bit confused.

After thinking about what Eilara said; Fox decided to take her advice and headed into the library where Eilara was waiting for him beside what looked like a visor and a very large book, Fox sat down and said "So you are telling me that with this Visor and book; I can learn a four year long course in a few minutes?" Eilara shook her head before saying "no you silly fox, not just with these tools it takes one more thing; I will use my knowledge to enhance yours by using some ancient magic, more specifically the magic of my mother Usara; the goddess of wind, yeah I'm a demi-goddess; much to my displeasure, however I am not allowed to use my abilities for personal gain; only to help others, so no using my power to wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop; as much as I'd like to." Without any hesitation, Fox put on the visor and began his studies.

Five hours later…

After Fox finished his 'education' session his head hurt; so he just laid back and closed his eyes as his vision was slightly blurry from the 'assisted' reading and after a while his headache went away to which Eilara said "well Fox how do you feel?" To which Fox said "I feel like I have twenty apes banging ferociously on my brain like it was a drum!" Eilara chuckled and said "yeah, bulk learning really does a number on ones cerebral cortex; don't worry it'll pass so why don't you go and get some fresh air?" Fox nodded before thanking Eilara and going on a walk. Then a bad feeling hit him… Where were Paige and Sakura? Suddenly he got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and in his panic he started to run around the place looking for the sisters; to which he slipped on some reddish liquid that was still wet, as he placed his hand on the liquid it was all sticky and had started to congeal; it was then that he realised what the liquid was, it was BLOOD! Then the panic gripped his heart making him feel terror; whose blood was this? He prayed that the blood wasn't that of Paige or her sisters so with sheer terror screaming in his mind he began to frantically search for Paige and her sisters "please god no; please don't let this blood be theirs!" he took a deep breath to calm his nerves and put on his old visor that he was using when he got shot down; when he activated it he found a new function on it and read what it was "bio-scanner mode, huh? WAIT… I can use this!" with that he activated Bio-scan mode and it confirmed his worst fears; the blood he had found was Paige's. Following the trail, Fox saw the blood spatter taper off to the right and without thinking he sprinted in the direction the blood had spilled in; after running for what seemed like hours he finally stopped to see what seemed like a heap of clothes dropped on the floor but as he got closer the shape had become more formed and when he got within five feet of the heap he heard a pained groan and stifled sobs; he then scanned the heap with the bio-scanner and found out that it was Paige!

Wasting no time at all Fox ran over to Paige, who was crying in pain while, to Fox's surprise, calling out for him so he called out to her before approaching and when he got to her he found out that someone had stabbed her all over her body multiple times all the while making sure that they missed all of the vital organs in the body in an sick and twisted way to make her suffer and he instantly knew who did it; he then said to himself "when I find you Raevorn you sick and twisted little bastard I am going to rip you apart!" He then saw Paige looking at him with fear; making him calm down to which he said "it's okay Paige there is no need to be afraid of me; I'm here to help you," to which Paige, with barely no strength said "it's not you that I'm scared of; it the fear that I am about to die due to a betrayal, please Fox, don't let me die!" she reached out for him but her strength faltered and she collapsed but luckily Fox caught her before her head hit the floor and began to try and comfort her in an effort to reduce the stress on her already struggling heart. Looking around Fox tried to find a safe place to work on Paige's wounds but struggled to find one; then the same voice that spoke to him after he crash-landed on Celyse said "Fox my son; you can save her, just follow my voice and you will find a way," Fox listened intently for the voice and when he found it he followed the direction that he heard it come from; a few minutes after following the voice that spoke to him, Fox found a nice clean and secure place to lay Paige to rest in; then using his bio-scanner he saw that Paige's vital signs were weakening, she also had low blood pressure and grave wounds all over her body. Hesitantly, Fox began to work on a way to save Paige's life but in the end he had to ask the doctors of the palace to help him to which, they gladly obliged while Fox waited patiently for news on Paige's condition. A few minutes later, one of the doctors came out of the emergency room with a grave look on her face as she said "Fox, the surgery is taking us longer than expected; her wounds are VERY severe and I am not sure that she will pull through," to which Fox said confidently "she will; I know it! That girl is one tough little vixen, even using my strongest defence she wiped the floor with me; I believe in her and you should too! I'm going to look for the other two so keep on at it would you?" The doctor nodded and promised to do her best; with that Fox set out to find Sakura and Kari. Setting his visor to long-range and activating the bio-scanner; Fox scanned the immediate surroundings for the other two sisters, after about twenty seconds of scanning the surrounding area he got a small ping on the HUD to which he immediately followed it. As the scan continued he got the bio-signal of his son Marcus with two other life signs, both female; one weak and one nominal. As a result Fox increased his tenacity and sprinted towards the life signs at high speed.

Meanwhile as Fox made his way to them Marcus stood in front of Kari, who was hurt but stable and Sakura who, like her sister was in a critical but stable condition as she treated some of her more severe wounds; seeing the two women in immediate danger Marcus, like his father, stood in the way and struggled to keep Raenyorn from harming the two sisters any further but much to Raenyorn's displeasure he was being pushed back and by a ten year old no less! Intent on protecting the two wounded girls, Marcus went all out and said "there's no way that I am letting you hurt them you big meanie! I'll fight you off no matter what!" to which a pained Sakura said through wheezing breaths "no Marcus, please don't put yourself in harm's way for us! Get out of here or your father would never ever forgive us for letting you get hurt! Please run away!" Marcus grew distressed and gave a little growl before he refused to run "No! I won't let this evil man hurt you any more I won't! I won't, I'll… I'LL NEVER GIVE UP NO MATTER WHAT!" as he let out an angry roar he suddenly exhibited some strange skills; When Marcus got angry he somehow managed to overpower Raenyorn forcing him back and said in between breaths "My daddy is the leader of team Starfox; he told me to never give up no matter how hard it got; when I grow up I want to be just like him so I can't give up here, not now; not ever!" With that he grew tired and feeling the tenacity of Marcus weakening Raenyorn decided to finish off what he started but no sooner had he gotten a step closer to Sakura; he felt a solid impact hit his face forcing him back and as he got up he saw a very angry looking Fox McCloud glaring at him with the staff primed and aimed right at his head. After backing away from Fox's attack, Raenyorn glared at him to which Fox said "so you think it's funny to torture those who won't fight back eh? You think you are a big man for picking on a little seven year old girl and a ten year old boy? Do you think you are all big and strong when you attack and gravely wound a young woman who doesn't want to be with you? Oh wow big man… shit you are pathetic! And now that you are facing off against someone who can fight back, you run away like a whipped dog with its tail between its legs? Hmph, just you wait Mr big licks; once I eliminate you, I will eliminate your brother and then after that? My team and I are going to wipe the floor with your pathetic toy soldierswhile we eliminate your father!" Raenyorn looked at Fox defiantly and said "you will never beat my father and once the 'regent' hears about this; you, your team and this miserable planet will be destroyed by his awesome power!" Fox then sneered at Raenyorn and said "is that all? Are you quite finished with flapping your gums now? Listen closely you coward; I am Fox McCloud, you will do well to remember that name; because it is that name that will wipe out your beloved 'regent' and eliminate your forces but to do that, first I must wipe you and your armies out, then when I'm done I will return to the Lylat system, reunite with my team and tear your beloved and illustrious 'regent' a new asshole, destroy him and wipe out any of the stragglers left behind. It's a pity you won't be around to see your master fall at the hands of Starfox because you will be dead; I'll see you in hell Raenyorn!" and with those final words Fox killed Raenyorn with the staff and headed over to the weakening Sakura who pointed at Kari and said "please treat my little sister before you tend to me Mr McCloud; she's only little and don't worry about me because I'll be fine." With a heavy heart Fox agreed to Sakura's terms and treated Kari's injuries to which she latched onto him afterwards and began to cry, saying "please Mr, save my big sister! I don't want her to die!" Kari sobbed into Fox's chest as he hugged her and a few seconds later Fox summoned over Marcus who hugged the hysterical Kari as she snuggled up to him to avoid seeing the state her big sister was in. Moments later, Fox had stabilised her enough for travel and like he did with Paige, carried her to the hospital where he was met by a relieved looking doctor who said "you were right Mr McCloud, Paige is alright; the surgery was successful." Fox breathed sigh of relief before showing the doctor Sakura and seeing the wounds on her; the doctor immediately began to work on Sakura while little Kari, traumatised from the recent events, sat on his knee and snuggled up to him with tears in her eyes saying "please let my big sisters be okay!"

Four Hours later…

After the long gruelling hours of surgeries; both Paige and Sakura were stable enough to be placed in recovery under the heavy guard of Krystal and Fara who were armed and ready to fight off any unwelcome visitors, as he sat there, worried about them Fox began to formulate a plan to eliminate Raevorn quickly and discreetly; but when he had settled on a plan Fox was given a letter and when he opened and read it he grew angry and eager to finish off what he started; the letter he received was a challenge to combat, written by Raevorn who was out for his blood after he killed Raenyorn. Fox accepted the challenge and told the others about it; Vesper immediately offered assistance to him to which Fox flat-out refused, Vesper tried to reason with him; saying that there was a chance that Raevorn wouldn't be alone, he then stressed the point that he may be wandering into a trap to which Fox, looking at the recovering sisters, snapped and said "Look just Back the fuck off will you Vesper?! I know it may be a trap and am fully aware of what may happen to me; but if I refuse now I would never be able to face your daughters again so please, I'm sorry for swearing at you but please try to see this from my perspective; I know I may die in the fight but I deal with that almost every day, I am a pilot and a soldier Vesper so please; let me do my job and if I should fall in battle at least I get to keep my pride and dignity." Vesper grew annoyed at Fox and wasn't afraid to show it "and If I let you do that and you die? What will my daughters have to say about that? And how would your son take to the news of his father's death?! ANSWER ME FOX!" surprised at Vesper's passion fox Jumped and said "Why are you so passionate about my winning this battle?" To which Vesper looked at Krystal who nodded to which Vesper clipped Fox around his earhole and aid in a very angry voice "because, in case you haven't noticed you buffoon, both Paige and Sakura have grown attached to you but their attachment is much more than a case of mutual respect; they happen to LOVE you! Why else would Paige cry out your name in distress as she was dying? And at the same time; why would Sakura always try to be with you in an effort to educate you in the ways of our people and why would she be a little saddened when you leave for the night?" Fox looked at Vesper and argued the case that he was already married to Krystal, who said "it's true Fox; both Paige and Sakura happen to love you and I have also noticed that our son Marcus has a 'special friend' too," Now normally I'd be jealous and possessive but when I was awakened I remembered that our people were a polyamorous race; my father had three wives on the go at the same time and not one of them would bat an eyelid." Fox went to protest only to be lovingly silenced by Krystal who added "And since you area kind-hearted man and I am an open-minded woman, I am sure we can sort something out between us; and don't think that I didn't notice you casting concerned glances towards the sisters who were badly hurt and had their hearts broken…" she then cast an accusatory glare towards Vesper who bowed his head in shame. Fox couldn't win so in the end he accepted what Krystal had said because; no matter how many arguments against it he had, Krystal would have three other arguments to counter his.

A few days later both Sakura and Paige regained consciousness and as they sat up slowly; they immediately began to look around for Fox, softly calling out for him; hearing his name being called Fox went over to where he heard it come from and cautiously entered saying "Hello? Who's calling me in here?" to which a relieved Paige said "It us Fox, Paige and Sakura, Y'know the women that YOU saved from an almost certain death? Why don't you come and see us much anymore? Have we done something to upset you?" Fox shook his head and said "no Paige you haven't, I've just been busy with the preparations for our upcoming fight with a now mutual enemy; the father of the two men who nearly killed you and your sisters, we are finally going to take them down so your people can finally live in peace; myself, Krystal, Fara, your mother and your father are just finalising our battle plans; as for you two, are you well enough to join the fray?" Sakura replied "we're sorry Fox but our injuries were really severe; it will take more than a few days for us to recover from our ordeal, after all we were stabbed almost everywhere on our bodies so we will be sitting this one out." Fox nodded and said "that's what I like to hear now you two take care of yourself!" he then went to leave leaving the girls to rest, but before he got to the doors both Paige and Sakura walked over and embraced him tightly to which Paige gave him a loving kiss and said "please come back safe Fox; because I don't know what my sister and I would do if you were to die so please; fight as you have never fought before and crush that bastard with your skills!" Fox nodded and went to leave but stopped ad said "oh by the way girls, Welcome to team Starfox; once I have taken out that sick bastard Raevorn I will take out his father and his armies, when that is done I will eliminate this 'regent' and once again bring peace to both the Lylat and Solayse system; count on it!" and with those final words he saluted Paige and Sakura before setting out to eliminate Raevorn and just as he predicted; it was a trap so being the smart vulpine that he was, Fox triggered his contingency plan; a very ballsy move in which he surrounded both him and Raevorn in a ring of fire while Krystal and Fara flew air support; preventing Raevorn's extra men from interfering with the duel between Raevorn and Fox, seeing his carefully laid out and meticulous plan fall apart around his ears, Raevorn just went feral and attacked Fox brutally but not getting anywhere; however due to the ferocity of Raevorn's attacks, Fox was always on the defensive and as a result the duel lasted for hours until finally Raevorn fell at Fox's hand; Fox, against all odds, had won the fight and as Krystal and Fara dropped fire-retardant foam onto the wall of fire from the skies Fox sat down really tired and looked up to the skies before falling onto his back in exhaustion; then as he woke up from his sleep that seemed like mere minutes he found himself laying in between Sakura and Paige who had snuggled up to him making Fox blush.

Next morning Fox nervously went into the kitchen where Krystal was sat patiently waiting for him to arrive and as soon as he stepped into the kitchen, Krystal said it's about time that you woke up Fox," she then looked at him intently making eye contact with a smile on her face to which Fox felt really guilty about sleeping with two other women in the same bed and she said "I know you were sleeping in a bed with Paige and Sakura because I put you there while they were awake of course; after your duel you collapsed and grew cold so I enlisted the help of the two girls whose lives you saved in an effort to keep you warm; something that I couldn't do by myself and don't worry about it, didn't we discuss this the other day? To strengthen our ranks we needed a lot of the Celysian defence force and the only condition that both Vesper AND Eilara gave was that you married both Sakura and Paige into our family; Oh and just to let you know, despite this being their second arranged marriage; unlike their first one, they were more than happy to accept it; you really touched the hearts of Sakura and Paige when you saved them, since then they have felt nothing but love for you and who am I to get in the way of a maiden's heartfelt feelings? So get used to them Fox because the marriage will take place in four days and since I am the princess of these people; I guess I have the powers to bind you to them both in matrimony" Fox sighed and said "four days huh? Alright since I can't win against your arguments with my own I will do as I'm told and hey, who knows? Maybe you girls will straighten me out." Krystal smiled proudly and hugged Fox as she said "thank you Fox and remember; like I promised on OUR wedding day, I will never leave your side no matter what happens to us." With that Krystal hugged Fox one last time and left him alone in order to help him get to know both Paige and Sakura, better.


	12. Chapter 12: Matrimony

Chapter 12: Matrimony

After Krystal left Fox alone with Sakura and Paige he felt awkward; here he was in a recovery room with two young Vixens wearing virtually nothing but their underwear, sensing the discomfort of Fox Paige just started to act more like herself and said "So Fox, I guess you heard what our father said huh? We are due to be married in a few days but I'm not worried about it; in fact I am excited and am looking forward to it, at least this time both my sister and I have a say in this; when my father told this to us I could scarcely believe it, he said 'Paige, I know you are angry at me for what I did and I am truly sorry for hurting you in that way but I thought that was the only way to deal with it so with that in mind please consider what I am about to propose to you and your sister; now you don't have to do this if you don't want to but… would you like me to arrange it so both you and your sister could marry Fox McCloud?', Hearing him say that made my heart skip a beat and without hesitation I said yes; which brings us to the here and now, I chose to go through with this and Sakura was in agreement too; truth be told… When you crash-landed here on Celyse a while ago I had begun to feel hope for the first time in years; then when I saw you up close I fell in love but back then my heart was torn, either I married you and the planet would be destroyed; or I go through with my arranged marriage to that misogynistic asshole Raevorn and keep the planet safe, albeit as slaves. Now with those two bastards gone; my sisters and I can live our lives as we want, spend time with whom we want and get married to whoever we choose; I guess what I am saying is this, Fox, my sister and I want to marry you and join your team as fully fledged members of Starfox, so please allow us to join you in your fight against the 'regent'!" Seeing how serious Paige was about what she had just told him Fox paused for a moment before giving her a kind smile and nodding; before he knew it Fox found himself being held tightly by the scantily clad Paige and without thinking he wrapped his arms around her in an embrace before thinking to himself "_I hope you know what you are doing Krystal,_" before gently stroking Paige's back as she snuggled up to him, burying her face in his chest. After their warming exchange, Fox escorted Paige back home keeping an eye out for any hostile intent directed at them before saying good bye to each other as friends before she gently closed the door with a smile, Fox then left to keep an eye on the progress of the engineers rebuilding and upgrading his Arwing II; meanwhile in Paige's room after she closed the door she leant against it and sighed with her hand on her heart before saying "I am really looking forward to this!" with her heart full of joy and serenity she danced around her room before jumping onto her bed and embracing her pillow; she had finally got what she felt that she needed, a way to be herself, not changing for anyone; she kept on telling herself that she was a warrior not a housewife and prayed for the day of the wedding to come faster; while all of this was going on, Marcus had sat himself in a tree looking up to the skies when he heard a rustling and the sound of someone slightly smaller than him, climbing the tree that he was in; he looked around to see no one there and when he laid back against the tree trunk he heard the most cutest voice that he's ever heard say "What're ya doin'?" To which he looked up to see Kari staring intently at him with her beautiful blue eyes to which he blushed and said "Oh hi Kari, I'm just lookin up to the skies; what about you?" Kari Smiled at him before climbing down to the same branch that he was on, sitting beside him before saying "The same as you are, but I'm kinda bored so why don't we go play?" Marcus grinned and said "Oh? Is the life of a princess that boring?"

Kari shuffled closer to him before saying "yeah it is because you have to be so proper all the time, sitting there quietly looking all pretty; while curtsying to some weirdos that you've never seen before, then ya have to study all the time. I'm jealous of my big sisters, because they get to fight off bad guys with the others; don't you ever get bored when you watch your daddy and mommy go off to fight in a battle so they can protect those who can't protect themselves Marcus?" Marcus paused for a moment and as much as he hated to admit it Kari was right; he'd often get bored while his dad and his mom were off defending the others with their friends, as he contemplated what Kari had said he got lost in his own thoughts; so much in fact that he didn't notice her looking lovingly into his eyes and then, when he snapped out of it, he shouted in surprise and fell backwards only to be caught by Kari herself; who seemed to be stronger than she looked, after all he was quite heavy for any normal seven-year-old to lift and the minute he felt himself being hauled up by Kari he realised that she was quite strong for a girl of her age and stature to which he said "Oh wow Kari, you are really strong!" Kari blushed for a moment before shaking her head, pausing and while she was still blushing and holding onto Marcus' shirt collar she said "oh? You really think so?" Marcus nodded to which Kari gave him a really sweet smile and said "Thank you Marcus, you are so nice!" she then let him go and gave him a short hug before letting him go and continuing with her sentence "so are we gonna play or what?" Marcus agreed and climbed down the tree to which Kari got a little nervous; seeing this Marcus stood under the branch she was sat on and said "Come on Kari I'll catch you, trust me! Let me help you down," Kari nodded before taking a deep breath and shouting down "are you ready to catch me Marcus?" to which he nodded, Kari then shouted that she was coming down and just like he promised, Marcus caught Kari in his arms to which she blushed bright red before snuggling up to him in a warm embrace which made Marcus blush. After a moment or two, Marcus gently but Kari down on her feet and gently took some twigs and leaves that had found their way into her long silky black hair before dusting her off and smiling; they then held each other's hands and walked off to play. As the sun began to set both Marcus and Kari returned to the palace and headed to their parents; it was at that moment that the realised they had both bonded, making both of them happy. Shortly after that bonding session, both Marcus and Kari went to bed happy that they'd found a true friend in one and other; since that moment both Kari and Marcus would actively seek each other out whenever they felt alone, well apart from when they went to bed that is but each time they'd go to bed after spending time with each other they would try to get to bed early so the morning came faster. Noticing a change in the behaviour of Marcus; Fox walked over to him and asked how he was to which Marcus would tell him all about the time he spent with Kari and what they did during that time to which Fox, who was really proud of his son said "One day Marcus, both you and Kari will be needed to help out with the people if this planet; as much as I hate this fact; the truth is that a war is coming and the people will be frightened, it will be at this time when the people will turn to you and Kari for guidance; Kari, because she is a princess and can deal with their morale and you, because you are a very strong and competent young man. Don't think that I didn't see you take on that creep who was attacking both Kari and Sakura, successfully holding them back, while you waited for me to finish him off; so promise me one thing okay? Promise that you will protect Kari from harm and should you ever need to fight for survival let me give you some advice okay? To quote a very capable fighter, 'when the time comes to fight don't hesitate, just act' while your mom and I are in the skies, you will need to be down here making sure the people are safe with Kari do you understand Marcus? I'm counting on you my son." Marcus nodded in agreement before giving his dad a hug and getting ready for bed. After a few days of Marcus bonding with Kari and the engineers working on the arwings of the pilots who wanted to help Starfox with their fight the day of the wedding had come; Fox was dressed all handsome and trim while awkwardly stood In front of Krystal, who was dressed in her Sauria outfit with temporary ceremonial markings all over her body; sensing his concern, Krystal just walked off the dais and gave him a hug saying "I know you are uncomfortable with this Fox; but please bear with it, like I told you before; I am happy with this turn of events, I am happy because one, we get lots of reinforcements to save Corneria as well as the Lylat system; all the while saving the Solayse system in the process and two, It'll be easier to keep an eye on you and stop you from doing stupid things again. It is true what peppy says about you, y'know? Despite being a very good pilot; you are also quite reckless, like that time you tried to stop me from crashing into the ground by using your bloody Arwing II as a buffer in an effort to stop me from getting hurt in the crash, there was also that time when you flew into an asteroid field blind, just because you were in a hurry to save Great Fox from being trashed by missiles, oh and let's not forget the time when you sacrificed your Arwing to Save Fara's life from that unknown Wolfen pilot… Leading us to here and now; anyway speaking of Fara, where is she?" No sooner had Krystal said that she heard Fara say "… But I can't wear this it's too revealing! Why must I wear this outfit too? I mean you can see my legs and midriff… Hell you can even see my… my…" before she could finish her sentence, Fara got pushed into the same room as Fox and Krystal, by Eilara's aide who said "this is a very sacred ceremony young lady and must be respected as such so go on… get in there and take your place! Go on, get in there!" To which Fara continued to protest and said but you can see my…" She looked up and saw both Fox and Krystal looking at her with a raised eyebrows to which she said quietly "…cleavage, oh... hi guys heh, long…time no…" she noticed Fox looking at her patiently and blushed before she sighed out "…See" to which in response she blushed and folded her arms across her chest with a very embarrassed smile on her face. After Krystal managed to calm the nervous Fara down, she returned to the ceremonial dais while Fara took up her position next to Fox, who started to feel a little bit hot under the collar making Fara say "don't be like that Fox, you'll make me feel more self-conscious than I already am, besides I well erm… Never mind, it's, it's nothing." She then forced herself to look forward while still blushing as she held the wedding bands meant for Sakura and Paige, she then felt a little sad before quietly saying "aw man, these girls are soooo lucky! Not only are they royalty but they are so hot and attractive; but me? Nah, I don't have the curves or the body to flaunt, I'm just so plain and boring and…." Fox felt her distress and gently placed his hand on her feminine shoulder while still looking forward and saying without looking art her "Fara, stop questioning your own self-worth okay? You are a good pilot and despite what you think; you are…erm, well you are an attractive young woman okay? So just stop doubting yourself; if you go through life doing that you will get nowhere and who knows? You may actually find someone to love in the future." Fara calmed down before saying quietly and made it so only she could hear "I already have Fox you dummy and it's you; but how can I compete with Krystal, Paige and Sakura?" Fox gently took his hand off her shoulder and said "did you say something Miss Phoenix?" Fara blushed and said "N… no Fox, I was just erm, mumbling to myself about how warm it was on this planet, yeah that's it, yeah; it's warm here Fox and I'm just feeling a little restless, that's all." Fox nodded and said "okay fair enough, but remember what I said to you Fara." He then nodded and she did the same before thinking to herself "maybe one day I'll be welcomed into the same group of Krystal and the twin sisters," she then looked up and saw Krystal smiling at her before saying to herself "aw crap she read my thoughts didn't she? Goddamn it!" she then shook her head to which Krystal chuckled and wrote something on a piece of paper before walking over to her and stuffing the written note into Fara's top and walking back to her place on the dais.

Fara looked at the note and read it to herself in her mind:- "_Fara; I know how you feel about Fox and I can understand why you would feel that way, Fox knows that you are still beating yourself up over what had happened to him; which is why he told you what he did and while yes, this is a wedding between him and two Princesses, it doesn't mean that it will never happen to you so all I can say is just be patient okay? Oh and STOP WITH THE SELF-LOATHING and SELF-PITY okay sweetie? Your figure and curves are fine. Embrace who you are and carry on with your life._" Fara looked at Krystal who took on a serious demeanour before nodding in her direction to which she nodded back and resumed her focus on her part in this wedding between Fox, Paige and Sakura. After a few minutes the aide finally came in and announced the arrival of both Paige and Sakura; who gracefully walked up to the dais wearing the same outfit as Krystal, complete with their own individual markings and as Fara looked at them, she noticed that they had some kind of jewellery going through their navel, making Fara wince as she saw that it had gone through the skin. They then both stood on their set positions either side of Fox; Paige was on the left and Sakura was on the right to which Fara moved to the middle facing Fox making him see everything that she had to offer and in an effort to preserve her dignity; Fox never broke eye contact and nodded respectfully to which she did the same before presenting the rings to Fox and his new wives. After the wedding was done, Fara walked back to her original place and let out a relieved sigh before quietly saying "oh wow that was really intense! And Fox, what a guy he is; even when he saw my…ugh, my virtually naked chest he never looked at me lewdly; either I must be really unappealing to him or he is very strong-willed, I do hope it is the latter and not the former," the ceremony went on for hours and finally when it was complete Fara let ut a big sigh of relief and politely excused herself from the ceremonial hall, eager to get changed into her old flight gear but when she got to her quarters; she looked in the mirror and saw the outfit she was wearing and as it came to getting changed she hesitated and looked at it a bit longer before saying "Actually; it's not that bad, maybe Krystal was right about it but wait a minute… If she was right about that then maybe Krystal was right about that other thing, oh I do hope that's true! Well then it's decided, I think I will wear this outfit for a little bit longer. She then looked at herself in the mirror, staring at her bare midriff and smiled; then she decided to go on a walk and while she did that she actively sought out Fox and while she walked around; much to her displeasure some of the guards, who were obviously off duty and under the influence of alcohol, hit on her to which she said "Look, while I'm flattered that you are feeling that way about me; one I am already saving myself for someone and two, you guys are obviously too pissed to realise who I am; I am Fara Phoenix of team Starfox and I will not muck about with you drunkards; also, my heart belongs to someone else and it ain't you, so kindly piss off!" One of the guards said "oh come on don't be like that baby, let us show you a good time!" Getting angrier each second Fara said "Oh is that so? Hmph… Are you sure you could 'rise' to the occasion though?" incensed at Fara's dig at his 'performance' the guard went for her, only to be effortlessly knocked down by Fara, who didn't even break a sweat to which she said "Just as I thought, I will be reporting this undesirable incident to your leader and my commander; have a nice day you piss-head." She then turned on her heels and marched off towards where she thought Fox was, so she could tell him about what had just transpired; a few moments later; it wasn't Fox that approached the guards, it was Paige; who, disgusted with the guards' actions glared at him and said "you make me sick! Hitting on a woman you don't even know much about, especially one whose heart belongs to another man and let me tell you this; the one man that she loves, is so much more of a man than you are or ever will be! Just you wait until I tell my father about this! Now get out of my sight you little pervert!" With that the guard ran off to which Paige said "I am so sorry about that Fara; hey I have an idea, why don't you spend the night here with me, Krystal and Sakura? We could have a girls' night and talk about anything and everything! Oh and don't worry about Fox walking in on us; he is too busy keeping an eye the engineers watching them carefully as they work on our aircraft for the upcoming fight with our mutual enemy; us girls are kind of making our own little battle plan to win this Skirmish for Solayse and we could use your input so are you in?" Fara nodded without hesitation and for the rest of that night the girls worked on the battle plans that they would use to support the man that they all loved.


	13. Chapter 13: The Battle for Solayse

Chapter 13: The Battle for Solayse

As the night drew in the girls felt tired because it had been a very tiring day; not only had Sakura and Paige got married; but Fara, who was walking around on her own in virtually nothing, had been hit on by a drunken and perverse guard; had to defend herself from his advances, she was exhausted because it took nearly all of her willpower to stop her from gravely wounding the guard with her self-defence training that was given to her by the Cornerian defence force and Krystal had to perform the ceremony; they were all relieved that the day was over and they could began to prepare their battle plans while Fox, still stunned by the fact that he now had three wives to look after, began to wander around; lost in his thoughts and said "man I am beat! But despite this, why can't I sleep? ***Grrr!*** Come on Fox, snap out of it! You now have three wives and your Arwing is under refurbishment; hmmm, I wonder where Marcus is…" after saying that, Fox began to search for his son and stumbled upon Kari, who was looking thoughtfully up at the sky and without looking at him she said "Mister McCloud; please tell me more about where you came from, Marcus told me that his home was…. Well strange and, I'd like to hear more about your adventures." Fox sat down beside Kari and said "well Kari, I guess I could tell you about my family and me, but it's getting late so why don't you go to bed and I will tell you all about it in the morning," Kari then turned to face him and said "but mister McCloud, I can't sleep; I can't help but feel like something is gonna happen soon and it won't be pretty and I'm… I'm scared; so I can't sleep," Fox looked at her and said "But Kari, there isn't anything to be scared of so come on; you'll need your sleep so you can wake up feeling better, I promise that…" Kari placed her little hand on his mouth and said "it's too late Mr McCloud; they have already started the fight." After saying that, she pointed up towards the sky as a fireball entered the atmosphere and hit the ground causing a large shockwave that shook the area around them, causing Fox to grab Kari in his arms in an effort to protect her from harm.

"Emergency, Emergency! Emergency, Emergency! Incoming enemy attack! Will all available fighters prepare for launch!" No sooner had that announcement finished, the alarms around the castle started to blare and the lights started to flash to which Marcus came sprinting out with the girls in order to bring them to Fox and let him know about the call to arms; no sooner had Fox ran off with his wives running behind him, still in their revealing outfits; Marcus ran over to Kari and held his hand out and said "Come on Kari we need to go and please don't worry, because I'll protect you; no matter what!" Kari took Marcus' hand and began to run with him back to the palace where he saw the ground troops of Celyse mobilise for battle; as he watched them he saw Fox and his team enter the hangar where the aircraft were being kept, just before Fox left he approached Marcus and said "do you remember that little talk we had a short while ago son? Well the time has come so remember what you promised me and follow up on it ok? I am so proud of you; so please be safe and don't worry about me, I'll be back before you know it. Until then look after the people and especially look after Kari; I know that you can do it! I believe in you and so does your mother so get to it champ!" Marcus, although he was worried about his father and mother going into battle, nodded and began to escort people to the shelters with Kari at his side while Fox and his team prepared their arwings for a fight, much to the displeasure of the chief engineer who said "But sir! The new systems in the ships haven't been flight tested yet! We need at least a few more days to run a few tests before we can safely launch them in confidence!" Vesper looked at the engineer and said "well in case you haven't noticed Tacitus; we don't have a few days, the enemy are here and are here in FORCE! We don't have time to run these tests. We have to defend our home and defend it right now; prepare the ships for launch or I will find someone else who will."

Tacitus growled and glared at Vesper before sighing and saying "fine, but I won't be held responsible for any harm that may come to you and team Starfox while you use UNTESTED TECHNOLOGY! Okay Valkyr; prepare the Arwings for launch!" the second engineer cast a concerned look at Tacitus who glared at him and snapped "just do it!" to which Valkyr nodded hesitantly and began the preparations as Fox and his team did the pre-flight checklist "okay team Starfox; let's go through the checks one last time…

*Internal power to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*External power to **disable**…._Disabled_

*Primary weapons to **enable**…._Enabled_

*Secondary weapons to **enable** and **prime**…._Primed_

*Astrogation systems to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*Life Support to **enable**…. _Enabled_  
*Deflector shields to **enable** and _Prime_

*Targeting systems to **enable**…. _Enabled_

*Alpha Interface to **enable**… _Enabled_  
*Beta Interface to **prime**… _Primed_  
*Twin Lasers to **enable**… _Enabled_

*Nova Bombs to **prime**… _Primed_  
*Starflight mode to **enable**…. _Enabled_

*All-range mode to **prime**…. _Primed_

_*Hyperspace fold system to __**prime… **__Primed_

_*interspatial navigation to __**enable… **__Enabled_

_*Multi-dimensional barrier to __**prime**_… _Primed_

_*Inertial dampers to __**enable…**__ Enabled_

_*Automatic repair systems to __**prime**__… Primed _  
* **All Systems go**…. _Acknowledged, all systems are a go, Arwings primed and ready…_ okay team, let's move out!"

With that done, all of the Arwings launched while the base shook with each orbital bombardment that hit it; scattering debris all over the place nearly hitting the Arwings on their way out. Luckily Fox and his team launched with no problems, to which Fox said "alright Starfox, ALL WINGS CHECK IN!"

"This is Fara Phoenix here Fox; All systems are green, no anomalies detected in the g-diffuser system; continuing flight." "Fox, this is Vesper; Operating within acceptable range." "This is Krystal McCloud; all systems are a go!" "Fox this is Paige; I am detecting a minor anomaly in the space fold system but it is within acceptable parameters, running diagnostics and enabling auto-repair."

"This is Eilara; no problems here," "Fox this is Sakura; I'm fine and the Arwing is handling fine now let's get up ther and kick 'em out of the Solayse system!" After hearing his team report their status he reported his, "All wings this is Fox McCloud; All systems are operating at one-hundred percent, I have to hand it to your engineers Vesper; they did a very good job on the repairs and upgrades given the limited time that they had. That being said, All wings, let's rock 'n' roll! Switch to all-range mode and move into attack formation Delta!" All of his team acknowledged his order and began the battle.

As the fight began; enemy fighters broke through the atmosphere and laid waste to Eurydice city targeting the densely populated areas and rolling tanks through the streets crushing anything and anyone who got in their way; seeing all this made Kari cry and Marcus, seeing the destruction took on the same intense look that his father would get while watching civilians getting hurt, then without warning Marcus snapped and it couldn't've happened at any worse a time; a small troupe of ground soldiers marched into the city centre and began mercilessly attacking the innocent, seeing this, Marcus grabbed whatever he could to use as a weapon and challenged the soldiers who just laughed at him and tried to push him aside but as soon as any of the solders touched him they ended up on the floor in agony.

Marcus fought with the same ferocity that his father would have, given the situation, starting to get annoyed with the tenacity of Marcus; a soldier just pulled out a blaster and aimed at him, but no sooner had his crosshairs landed on Marcus; both his arm and his ribs were broken and he was on his back unable to move and as he looked up he saw Marcus just glaring at him before walking away as the land forces of Celyse took over to which the commander looked at Marcus and said "ya did well kid; but it's time for us to take over from here, take the young princess and take shelter; Marcus looked at the soldier before just walking off he then saw a group of civilians lost, confused, frightened and without thinking; he ran over to assist them guiding them to the nearest shelter.

As he got close to the entrance of the objective the soldier gave him, Marcus looked up to the skies with an intense look in his eyes, just as Fox and his team flew over them; he then heard Kari crying in fear and despair to which without looking at her, placed his arm around her and gave her a comforting hug; she then reciprocated and snuggled up to him, burying her face in his chest while crying so much that Marcus felt his top get wet with her tears; he sighed before looking down at her to which she looked up and as their eyes met, Marcus smiled a very gentle smile before saying, "no matter what Kari, I won't let anyone hurt you or your people; I can't do much though. The only thing that I can do is to try and get them away from danger and into safety while my dad and his team beat the bad guys back in his ship," Kari listen to him intently before drying her eyes and said "okay Marcus; let's help the people, come on! I'll help, but how I will do that I don't know."

Nodding in agreement, Marcus accepted Kari's proposal and they got to safely getting any remaining civilians that were missed by the army, that were still alive, or lost to safety; Kari, being their princess did her best to try and calm them down while Marcus, utilising whatever he could find, to make a weapon of sorts began to defend them; just like Fox had told him to do, seeing Marcus in action made Kari fall in love with him; she told herself "yeah, I may only be seven and Marcus ten but even I know what love is; he's so strong and I'm sure he'd be a great husband… wait, his dad married my sisters so that means that I am his… aunty… oh man well Kari ya just made it weird, well done." Upset at the fact that she could never marry Marcus because of the situation, Kari sighed like a flat tyre but shook her head and said to herself "don't be silly Kari, you are only seven and you aren't related by blood so… maybe…" she thought about it for a while but eventually dismissed it as her duty as the princess of Celyse took priority, her people needed her and she was not going to let them down.

While all this was happening on the ground, Fox and his team where clearing out the last of the enemy pilots and had switched their attentions to the enemy ground troops, "Marcus this is your dad, what's the status down there son?" Marcus, hearing his father on the old communicator that he gave him before taking off, said "Oh hey dad erm… it looks like the other people are safely housed in the shelters; I think the soldiers have successfully got them all to safety," Marcus looked at the commander who gave him the all-clear to which he continued "the commander of the soldiers has just said that it was okay, so what should I do now?" Fox paused for a moment before saying "I am so proud of you Marcus my son; you have done all that you need to do so it's time for you and Kari to get into the shelter with the others because, the team and I; are taking this fight up into space. Don't worry we'll be fine, you just head into the shelter and wait for us to come back okay? This is Fox McCloud over and out, see you soon son." With that the radio went quiet and like Fox told him to; Marcus went into the shelter with Kari who seemed troubled but rather than bother her, Marcus waited for her to tell him what it was that was upsetting her in her own time.

Like Fox had said, the fight went up into space "all wings, switch to star flight mode; let's finish this!" After he said that, Fox took one last look around Eurydice city with his Arwing's bio-scanner to which the report upset him, over four-hundred fatalities; including elderly citizens, women and children no one was spared. Fox grew angry and then without warning boosted into space, breaking formation to which his team quickly followed suit ensuring that they remained in formation to which Eilara, who was just as devastated as Fox said "calm down Fox; there was nothing that could be done! That sick bastard caught us off-guard, but I promise you this; he will be brought to justice!" to which Fox said "no he won't lady Eilara, because I am going to kill him first! Not even the children were spared from that madman's attack! CHILDREN Eilara. Little children who never got their chance to fully live their lives; he must be eliminated, both him and his armies for the safety of both Solayse and Lylat systems." To Fox's surprise the whole team agreed and it was Fara that said "No matter what you decide to do Fox; we will all support your decision, so… let's stop this waiting and take the fight to them and blast 'em out of the Celysian skies!" to which all of the team roared in unison making Fox say "You guys… Thank you! Alright… Let's do this!" hearing this exchange between his steadily growing family, Marcus smiled to which Kari asked what he was smiling about; Marcus told her and she said "everyone, look I know it looks bad but Starfox is up there fighting for our very lives! We need to send them our hopes and prayers! So Come on! Let's believe in them." There was a load of murmuring amongst the people but that murmuring quickly turned into the chanting of "Star-Fox! Star-Fox! Star-Fox! Star-Fox!" and before she knew it that chant turned into cheers of hope as they all watched the space fight on the monitors.

As this all kicked off in the city, Fox and his team had begun their attack on the enemy fleet; Fox put his sorrow to the back of his mind and opened communications to his team and said "Okay team, it's time for us to show the civilians down in the shelters of Eurydice City what we do best; all of their hopes are now resting on us. Switch to all-range mode and partner up; Fara you are with me, Krystal, you and Sakura cover each other's six, Eilara, you, Vesper and Paige focus your attacks on the enemy destroyers; it is time to rock and roll!" with that, the team carried out Fox's plan and attacked the enemy with ferocity; they would not rest until they had torn the enemy asunder, one by one the enemy ships fell; and each time a ship fell, the enemy would launch all of their fighters while they fell apart seeing the enemy fighters retreat, Fox barked down the radio "I got enemy fighters breaking away! Don't let any of them escape; disable them or destroy them it's your call, once we have eliminated the enemy fighters one way or another; however, the commander of this fleet, who cleared the attack on the civilian populace will be eliminated. Starfox, move out!" As soon as he said that all of his team carried out the battle plan, but Krystal was starting to worry; she had never seen this cold-hearted side of Fox before, not to this extreme bit she grew relieved when Fox, somehow sensing Krystal's concern said "despite what I said regarding the fighters Krystal, I would prefer NOT to kill them, just arrest them but as for the commander of this invasion force; he needs to go or neither pf our homes will be safe, not the Lylat system nor the Solayse system. If he survives this attack, he would retreat to wherever he was based, regroup and then come back with an even bigger force than before; so he has to be defeated, do you understand?" Krystal acknowledged what Fox had said and the fight continued long into the night.

Night turned into day and before Fox knew it, the enemy forces had been crushed and all that was left of the enemy forces were a few stragglers and the enemy flagship to which Fox said "okay team, you mop up what is left out here; I'm going in to finish this fight," Fara, concerned for Fox's wellbeing said "Please let me come with you so I can help!" Fox went all quiet for a bit before saying in the most polite and kindest way possible "I'm sorry Fara but I'm going it alone from here; just help the team wrap up any loose ends and don't worry, I'll come back, I promise." Then with that, Fox boosted off, flying right through a breach in the ships shields saying "Fara if you want to help me out then please scan the enemy ship; I need a complete readout of its status." Fara, without a second thought agreed to it and did the scan to which she said "ok Fox, sending the stream to your HUD; knock em dead handsome." Fox smiled before nodding and destroyed the ship from the inside, out.

For about an hour, there was a great silence and the team began to worry about Fox but no sooner had they all prepared to find him there was a muffled explosion from within the hull of the ship as it expanded outward and began to crack as a brilliant white light burst through the hull breaches. Then there was a message from Fox who said "All wings break formation and fall back; the enemy ship is about to explode! Everyone use your boost to get away from the area of effect and follow me!" The minute he finished his sentence Fox's Arwing boosted through his team to which they all followed suit as a massive explosion shook the space around them and on a final pass over the area they saw the ship destroyed to which Fox said "All wings return to base; mission accomplished, the target is destroyed." With those words all of team Starfox headed back to Celyse and Fox said "All wings report in!" "This is Krystal; my Arwing is a little damaged but all in all I'm okay." "This is Paige; my Arwing is low on fuel and has major damage to the wings and hull but all in all, I'm fine the automatic repair system is keeping life support systems operational." "This is Eilara; my hull integrity is at forty-three percent and I have a crack in my canopy, luckily the auto repair is already doing its job and I'm fine, it just got a little bit hairy up there." "This is Vesper; my arwing seems a little bit sluggish and I had to reroute power from my space fold system to keep this bird in the air, I have also rerouted remaining power to the repair systems." "This is Sakura; my arwing is yellow-lighting and my ship is a mess, I'm alright though; oh I just can't wait to get back onto solid ground so I can have a bath!" "This is Fara Phoenix; my arwing seems relatively undamaged but the craft itself is a little shaky, I'm okay but I am more worried about you Fox, you went crazy out there and nearly got shot down! You really need to be careful otherwise how would your wives feel if you were to fall in battle due to your recklessness huh?" There was a pause before Fox said "I'm sorry ladies, it's just that… all of those lives cut short thanks to a madman; all because he wanted more resources to become more of a dick than he already was, I… I didn't need that, NO the WORLD didn't need that; he had to be destroyed."

All of his team thoughtfully listened to him and offered their support, making him feel better to which he said "alright team this is Fox McCloud; All systems are ok, time to return to Celyse." With that the closely knit team made planetfall onto Celyse as the civilians cheered and celebrated their return. After the great battle of Solayse, Fox and his team decided to take some well-deserved rest and relaxation; for the first time since he crash-landed onto planet Celyse, Fox who was very tired, finally got some sleep and felt at peace with himself; only to have his two new wives dive onto the bed, before snuggling up beside him and falling asleep. While they laid there, Fox wrapped his arms around them and gave them a loving hug before telling himself "well, I'm really going to have to get used to this; it's funny how it happened though, who'd have thought that after I crash-landed on this planet, I'd be married and to a princess nonetheless; not one, not two but three… Three princesses; hell I didn't even know that Krystal was royalty. Fate must really be pulling a prank on me; first having me crash-land on this planet and then binding me in matrimony to both of the princesses of Celyse, then finally having me fight one epic battle to save this system, up until several days ago, I'd never have heard of and now I am protecting two planetary systems with my team, oh what a day…"

After that Fox just closed his eyes while listening to the soft breathing of both Paige and Sakura as they slept beside him feeling really happy but tired; they were now free of their political bindings and had become part of team Starfox, allowing them to be their selves; unrestricted and unbound from politics. As far as they were concerned, they were in heaven; married to the person that they desired and given freedom to do as they please and it was for that, they were truly thankful.

The next morning; after Fox had woken up, he started to draw up plans to return home to the Lylat system when Fara walked in wearing nothing but a towel; Fox watched as she approached him to sit down and let out a big yawn nearly dropping her towel in front of Fox but luckily he cleared his throat just to let her know that he was there, making Fara wake up and apologise before saying "Oh I'm sorry Fox; I'll go and get changed… Erm… Heh, I'll be right back a few minutes later she returned and they began to go over the plan to return to the Lylat system together plotting the best way back.


	14. Chapter 14: return to the Lylat System

Chapter 14: return to the Lylat System

When they both sat down to finalise their plan to get back home, Fox noticed that Fara was sat really close to him and she didn't even realise it until her ear touched his to which both Fox and Fara found themselves snout to snout, making Fara fall back in surprise as she blushed before saying "I'm… So sorry Fox; I didn't realise that I was sat so close," All Fox did was just smile before saying "it's okay Fara don't worry about it; anyway it's a good thing that you are sat so close because this is a fairly small plan and there are a few things I need you to do, you see these mountains here? I think that'll be a good place to begin our jump back to Lylat, but if what you have told me was true then; all that is waiting for us is ream after ream of enemy. So the question is this, how in Lylat can we get to our objective undetected?" Fara sat back for a minute and thought to herself what the best course of action was to which she said, "If we could change the hyperspace jump point from here to here; then we would emerge from the interspatial corridor just out of enemy scanner range, we then use the debris left over from the last enemy attack to mask our approach. From there we will need to make our way, first to Venom and regroup with Falco and the rest of our team; after that we should make our way to the crash-site of Great Fox II and assess the situation, the problem about that is this, as soon as we break from cover the enemy scanner sweep will pick us up and they will engage us on sight. The best thing I can suggest is that we keep an eye on the enemy sensor net and avoid any overt manoeuvres then we can get to what is left of the Great Fox and rearm, refuel and repair both Great Fox II and our Arwings properly, so how does that sound Fox?"

Fara was in her element, before she knew it the embarrassment that she felt when she got too close to Fox faded away, making her seem more confident in her skills. Fox looked over Fara's calculations and found that they added up perfectly to which he said "okay Fara so what do we do once we have successfully jumped to our location?" Fara looked at him before thinking for a while; she then did some quick calculations in her head and said "Well Fox, I'll send an encrypted message to Miyu and Fay, using the custom communications language that we developed during our time at the experimental vehicles division of the Cornerian defence force; only Myself Miyu and Fay understand this language; by using this, they will know that it's me communicating with them; however… I need to keep the communique below a certain frequency so the enemy don't intercept it and I know for a fact that since we blew the enemy invasion fleet out of the Solaysian skies, the enemy will be on heightened alert so we will need to be careful, or we will be detected and engaged at full pelt by the enemy." Fox acknowledged what Fara said and took one last look over the plans that they had just written up and said "well Fara; I have to say that your knowledge of space flight tactics and interspatial travel is quite astounding, I'm impressed so I have to ask; why are you so unsure of yourself when you have a superb skillset like this? If anything you'd be better suited to command this team than I am." Fara blushed and went all shy before saying "oh, you really think so? No Fox you are wrong there, I'm not the leading type; while I do have a lot of skills in battle I don't have the ability to command a team as big as Starfox currently is. It's just that when it comes to things like this and I am not under any pressure I come into my element and have a vast knowledge of these types of things; but as soon as I am put under pressure I get anxious and I panic." Fox sighed at what Fara said before replying "I hate to do this to you Fara but, I am putting you in charge of the battle plan from now on; you are now leading us back home whether you like it or not, it's time that you snapped out of this mind-set because if you don't then you will never grow as a pilot or a member of Starfox; this doesn't mean I will drop you from the team but I will have you go through very intense training and won't stop it until you learn to be yourself in battle; so no more of this 'Oh am I truly good enough for this team' nonsense, you have potential and I won't rest until you reach it."

Hearing Fox say that to her Fara felt happy but at the same time she felt worried; just how far would Fox go to help her reach her potential? Seeing the look on her face Fox decided to be a bit more joking and said "Hell I'll even marry you if I have to! Either way, you have potential and I would love to see you reach it." Fara looked at him and said "it's not nice to tease a lady Fox; you have to be joking right?" Fox smiled at her and replied "yeah you're right, I'm only half joking with you." Fara gave a nervous laugh before seeing the look of calm on Fox's face and just like that she relaxed before saying "Wait… only _**HALF**_ joking? Come on Fox don't be so mean to me! Because you know how I feel right? Y'know; about you?" Then it was Fox's turn to be surprised. He looked at Fara who had gone all glassy eyed to which he said "well that's erm… that's quite the revelation there." Fara then replied "oh for fuck's sake, why do you think that I started to cry when you went down after saving me? Why do you think I felt all embarrassed at the wedding of you Sakura and Paige while I was wearing that ugh… revealing outfit while stood in front of you? And while I'm at it; why do you think I go all shy around you unless we are making battle plans like this one?" Fox took in what Fara was saying to him and responded "so you are telling me that you love me? But I thought…" Fara glared and went right up to him before she made eye contact and gently knocking him on the forehead with her fist before saying "of course that is what I'm saying you dummy! Hell I'd even go as far as to say that I was jealous of Krystal when I heard you'd got married to her and my heart ached further when you married both Paige and Sakura; seeing all this go on right before my eyes I felt invisible, I know my figure is not that great and I know that my chest size is average at best; I mean goddamn it Fox McCloud! On that day I asked myself 'how can a girl like me compete with the likes of Krystal, Paige, Sakura, Miyu, Fay, Katt and bloody Amanda?!', I felt really out of place around them and well I…" Fox silenced Fara gently before saying "remember when I told you that I'd find a way to make you reach you're potential no matter what I'd have to do right and I told you that I was only half joking? Well I wasn't joking about marrying you, do you understand?" Fara couldn't believe her ears, in fact she thought that she had misheard what Fox had said and cleaned out her ears before saying "wait, did I just hear you right? Did you just say you'd marry me?"

Looking into Fox's eyes with hope, Fara felt her heart race and waited for Fox to reply and when he did her heart was soaring, "Yes Fara, I did say that; but it'd have to wait until we get back to the Lylat system, back to our home and back with our team; that is our priority at the moment and I'm sure that Krystal will…" Fox never got to finish his sentence because he heard Krystal say "I think that's a wonderful idea Fox! Y'see Fara I was right wasn't I? I'd be only too happy to bring her into the McCloud family, but like Fox said; our priority is to get back to the Lylat system first and it will be even harder to do so with all the extra help we are getting. Vesper has decided to send Paige, Sakura, Kari and a third of the Celysian defence force back to the Lylat system with us while both him and his wife, stay here on Celyse; so those calculations need to be sound, or we will fail in the mission to reunite with our team." Fox looked at Krystal and confirmed the validity of the calculations and explained the plan to her to which Krystal looked at Fara, very impressed; she then told Fox that she was going to confirm the action plan with Vesper and left with a smile on her face as she said to herself "oh wow Fara; you have come a really long way since we landed on this planet; ah well there's no rush, after all I think Vesper is 'busy' at the moment so I will show him later." She then chuckled to herself and went to spend time with Marcus while Fox and Fara got 'better acquainted' with one and other. Happy with what Krystal had said; Fara breathed a sigh of relief before sitting back in her chair only to spot Fox looking at her with an amused look on his face, then without warning, Fara locked her gaze onto Fox who was standing up and as soon as their eyes met, in the blink of an eye; Fara launched herself out of the chair at Fox who stumbled back in surprise as she jumped into his arms making them both fall backwards with a clatter as they both rolled across the floor before landing in a compromising position. After the initial shock of Fara jumping onto him with her arms outstretched Fox got up helping Fara up while he did and they embraced to which Fara said "oh I can't wait to get back to the Lylat system! I get to see all of our friends again and do my part in this war effort to help crush the enemy forces and blast them out of the Skies!"

Fox agreed with Fara as he dusted her off, brushing the dirt from everywhere on her body; her hair, her back, her face, her chest and her backside; along with anywhere else that was dusty. After that she embraced him again and said "I also can't wait to join your family, Fox McCloud." To which Fox just wordlessly and gently embraced her back before sitting with her again to quadruple check the plans before they travelled back home. About four hours later Krystal returned with the sisters and linked up with both Fara and Fox; who were acting like they'd just started dating, as they left their temporary barracks they found two lines of Celysian soldiers either side of the pathway they were walking down and no sooner had they set foot on the pathway; the commander barked out "Atten-hut!" and in synchronisation the soldiers saluted Fox and his family as they walked past them when Eilara's aide approached them and said "hurry up guys or you will miss the parade!" Confused, both Fox and Fara said "Parade? What parade?" to which the aide replied "The parade that celebrates you as heroes for freeing the Solayse system from the oppression of the 'regent's' forces! You blasted them out of the skies and restored the trade routes between the planets of the Solayse system so come on now, hop to it!" With those words, the close fractal of team Starfox followed the aide to a land based vehicle that took them into the town centre as a group of the Celysian Air force did a fly by to the roaring cheers of the Civilian populace that team Starfox had saved from complete and total destruction. During the parade, Fox and his team felt really awkward as they were driven down the streets in an open-topped vehicle complete with ticker tame and streamers being thrown all around them; feeling overwhelmed by the adulation of the civilians, fox looked at Krystal and quietly said "this is awkward, I'd be much more comfortable in my Arwing… This celebration is just too much!" Krystal nodded but told him to grin and bear it to which he did.

About an hour had passed during the celebratory parade before it was finally over and Fox couldn't have been happier; later that night Fox and his family were invited to a banquet in their honour and fox grew exasperated, he just wanted to get back into his Arwing and take his team back home to the Lylat system and before he knew it, the feast was over and he could finally get his team back to their home planetary system; after resting for the rest of the night, Fox and his extended family were finally ready to leave Solayse and as one last hurrah the entire air force of Celyse flew over releasing coloured smoke as Fox and his team prepped for launch. Once again they went through their pre-flight checks and took off; following Fara's revised plan to which Fox said "Okay Starfox, begin preparations for hyperspace fold manoeuvres; check your entry vectors and stay alert! We don't know what may or may not be waiting for us on the other side of the interspatial corridor, once we return to the Lylat system switch to silent mode and carry our Fara's infiltration plan; we cannot be caught unaware or this will be a very short homecoming, all wings move out!" With that team Starfox engaged their jump drives and began the long trip back to the Lylat system.

Meanwhile back in the Lylat System…

Falco began to grow restless; it had been nearly six months since the others had left the Lylat system in search of Fox and Falco began to lose all hope of ever seeing them again and ended up lost in his thoughts before saying "Goddamn it, where are you guys?" Seeing Falco upset, Katt sat beside him and placed a feminine hand on his knee before saying "what's wrong Falco?" Placing his hand on top of Katt's, he looked at her and said "I think we have lost Fox and the others for good," to which Katt said "don't worry about it Falco; I'm sure they are on their way back now, even as we speak. In fact, I'm sure Fox and the girls are getting closer to home." Falco looked at her regrettably and said in a very defeated tone "it's been six months Katt… If Fox were alive he would've contacted us by now; as much as I hate to say this, I think that we have lost two of our best pilots…" hearing that from Falco; Miyu's ears pricked up and in an offended tone she said "Excuse me? Did you just say, 'TWO of our best pilots'? What the hell are you talking about you asshole? What about Fara? Doesn't she count? After all, Fara is a part of this team too you know!"

Falco went to reply but no words would come out of his beak, all it did was flap open and shut like a fish trying to breathe outside of the water; to which Miyu got even angrier and said "so that's how it is huh?! Just because she makes one foolish mistake she doesn't count? Who the fuck do you think you are you bird brained dickhead? Fara is a good pilot and a very close friend of mine; but you wouldn't know about having friends would you? Y'know what…" Knowing what Miyu was about to say; Fay tried to interrupt her rant by saying "come on Miyu, it's not worth it; don't stoop to his level. Come on let's go," but that ultimately failed and she said what was on her mind, "No Fay I am gonna say it… I bet you're glad that Fox went down aren't you? After all, both Fox and Fara, are ten times the pilot that you are or ever will be!" Tears started to stream down Miyu's cheeks and she continued through stifled sobs "You are one cold and heartless bastard Falco Lombardi!" she then ran away from them sobbing bitterly, accidentally barging past Fay; who called out after her saying "Miyu wait for me!" She then turned to Falco with a disgusted glare before running after Miyu, who had slammed the door of her makeshift room; causing the walls to rattle. When she got into her room, Miyu jumped onto her bed landing face down and began to cry into her pillow; after a while Miyu stopped crying and stripped down to her underwear before lying face up on her bed staring the ceiling before saying "Where are you guys?" she then let out a sigh and rolled onto her side to look at the silent receiver on the desk. As Miyu got lost in her thoughts she was brought back to reality by a polite knock on the door as Fay had come to cheer her up "Miyu, may I come in?" after Fay asked to be invited into her room Miyu called her in; as she stepped into Miyu's room, Fay politely asked if she could sit down to which Miyu nodded and patted on her bed.

Fay then sat at the foot of the bed and took a deep breath before saying "hey Miyu, how're you holding up?" to which Miyu was just brutally honest "I'm not holding up well at all Fay; In fact I am REALLY pissed off right now; to make things worse I feel sick and my heart aches, I can't believe the audacity of that bastard Falco! How could he NOT include Fara in what he said? She is a good pilot too! Even you can confirm this because you've seen her in action, just like I have and just because she made ONE SIMPLE FUCKING MISTAKE JUST ONE! Falco saw it fit to dismiss her from his praise; we lost three fantastic pilots, not two." She let out an angry groan before rolling onto her back, placing one of her hands behind her head and used the other to fiddle with her navel piercing while she stared at the ceiling again before finishing off with "Y'know, I don't understand why Falco is like that; I mean yeah he is a good pilot but at the same time he is a total dick! Even after Fox gave him a chance to come back to the team it still seems like he harbours some kind of resentment towards him; I don't know Fay, maybe I'm… maybe I am reading too much into it, plus it doesn't help when it is THAT time again; maybe it's because my hormones are out of whack I don't know, but I just can't help but feel like I want to punch him in his stupid cocky face."

Fay listened to Miyu's rants while she tried to find a way to defuse the situation and cheer one of her best friends up then it hit her "hey Miyu, do you remember that first year in the academy when the three of us first met? That was the first time that I'd ever spoken to anyone outside of my family; when I spoke I actually burped instead of talking… oh I was SOOO embarrassed! But seeing me looking really worried, you actually made yourself fart on purpose! Just to make me feel a little less embarrassed and Fara just looked at the both of us before rolling her eyes, shaking her head and laughing to which we joined in; since that day, we have been best friends for as long as I can remember and that receiver on your desk? Didn't Fara give each of us a device so we could talk after lights out? If I remember rightly; the three of us created our own communications language that we encrypted with a custom encryption key so no one could intercept or detect our 'phone calls' between our dormitories," Miyu chuckled and said "yeah, I remember that, and when we graduated we still used it to talk to each other but do you know what else I remember? I remember the time when to celebrate our graduation we got matching tattoos didn't we? Right on our…" Fay blushed and said "Shhhht!… not so loud Miyu! Who knows who could be listening in?"

Miyu nodded before adding "yeah it was the same day that I got this navel piercing done; I suggested it to you and Fara but you were both too chicken to get it done." Fay nodded and said "I wanted it to get it done but at the last minute I chickened out; but if I remember rightly, and I often do, Fara didn't chicken out at all did she? In fact she got it done on the same day as you, but after a few months it got infected and she had to remove it as her body had begun to reject it; the last thing that I heard about it was that the hole in her belly where her piercing once was, had fully healed and had not left any form of scarring; so who knows? She may end up getting it done once again when she comes back to us and this time; I WON'T chicken out and I WILL get it done." After their girly chat, Miyu felt better and sat up before going over to Fay and embracing her saying "Thank you Fay; you've made me feel a bit better but in my eyes; Falco is still a dick. I don't want to see him for a while; so I'm heading to another part of this base to try and cool down." But as soon as Miyu got dressed into her civvies, the light on the receiver had begun to blink to which she said "What the hell?! Fay, FAY! The light on the receiver! It's… its flashing!" As soon as Miyu said that both her and Fay ran over to the receiver and picked it up to which they got a burst transmission from Fara, "This is Fara Phoenix to Miyu and Fay; we have Fox and are on our way back to the Lylat system with reinforcements! Rendezvous co-ordinates attached!" then the receiver went silent to which Fay got really excited as Miyu said "See? I knew it! I knew she was alive; but…ugh… I guess I have to tell Falco Mc Dickhead the news huh?" Fay nodded as she chuckled and said between giggles "Falco Mc Dickhead?" Miyu then gave a sardonic smile and said "Yup, Falco Mc Dickhead." With that they left for the command centre and when they got there both Miyu and Fay were met by a very apologetic looking Falco; to which Miyu just couldn't stay mad at him, especially when he apologised to her profusely.

She sighed and placed her left hand on her hip and giving a provocative pose that caused her decorative navel piecing to sway and give off a short jingle before saying "Y'know Falco, you can be a real asshole at times and you should have learned by now y'know; since you are surrounded by a fair few women, that we can be very sensitive about certain things; especially when it comes our friends, so in the future you jerk; engage your brain before your blasted beak and we won't have this problem again." Falco nodded to which Miyu said "good, I'm glad we understand each other; now for the other reason why I'm here in front of you, still angry at your tasteless remark that you made earlier; as Fay and I were talking in my room, my old receiver from my academy days lit up and we got a message FROM FARA… she is on her way back and she sent us some rendezvous co-ordinates… oh and before you say 'it's a trap' I can assure you that it isn't; the only people who can use these receivers are Fara, myself and Fay; since we designed it between the three of us and invented our own communications language complete with its own syntax, it also contains an encryption cipher that only us three can use; I guess you were wrong about that weren't you? I told you that she wasn't dead and when she gets back she is gonna be pissed, because I am going to tell her exactly what you said… RIGHT IN FRONT OF FOX AND KRYSTAL." In the meantime I suggest that we scout the area first and wait for them to arrive oh and before I go, no, I am not getting dressed in my flight suit because my skin needs to breathe; so I am staying in this outfit with my body decoration showing." After saying that, Miyu walked off towards the makeshift hangar bay with her hips swaying provocatively as Fay followed suit; to which Falco shook his head and said "those dames are trouble," he then got up and went for a walk as Katt followed him making sure that he was okay after being chastised by Miyu for his bad choice of words regarding Fox and the others.

Back in the hyperspace corridor… 

As they made their way to the Lylat System, Fox and his new recruits, apart from one, were starting to get anxious; would they break through the gate undetected or would they be thrust into a fight before they had re-joined the rest of team Starfox? The only one who wasn't anxious was Fara; she was far too focused on getting her job done to worry about what awaited them on the other side, looking around her arwing, Fara found the old communicator that she'd designed with Fay and Miyu; she tested it to see if it still worked which it did so she said "Hey Fox; just before we reach our destination I'll be sending an encrypted transmission to Miyu and Fay to let them know we are coming back; I'll be glad once we are back on our own soil, in the meantime we should switch to second alert mode in order for us to get ready for anything that waits for us, but I have a feeling that this will work. Anyway we are nearly there so I am sending a burst transmission to the girls ok?" Fox Acknowledged what Fara had said and took over command of the squadron while she sent the message_ "This is Fara Phoenix to Miyu and Fay; we have Fox and are on our way back to the Lylat system with reinforcements! Rendezvous co-ordinates attached!"_ She then ended the communique and said "Well all we need to do is wait, we will breach the hyperspace gate in three minutes so be ready for anything." The whole team acknowledged her message and just as she had predicted; they got back to the Lylat system in three minutes, de-folding just behind the old Bolse outpost; to which Fara said "ok were here, all wings switch to all-range mode and engage stealth systems Let's just hope Fara and Miyu are nearby, this is Fara Phoenix calling Miyu and Fay, respond!" No sooner had she said that two familiar Arwings emerged from cover and made the rendezvous with the wayward team to which Miyu said "Fara I knew you would do it! Welcome back home bestie! Both Fay and I have been worried about you so erm… what took you so long Fox? Did you decide to marry one of the locals or something?" Fara then said "h… Hey how did you know that? I didn't send you that information over the receiver did I?" Miyu chuckled and said "are you shitting me? Fox actually married one of the locals?" to which Paige said "Excuse me but erm, that's slightly inaccurate it wasn't one of the locals it was two; my sister and myself, My name is Paige and this is my sister Sakura it's nice to meet you Miyu; Fara has told us nothing but good things about you and your other friend Fay. I hope we too can be friends,"

Miyu went all silent for a moment before giving a wry smile and said "Why Fox you sly dog you! I'd never have believed it if I hadn't heard it myself; you must have a lot of stamina to have three wives on the go like that, I'm impressed." To which Fara said "That's not the half of it, before this day is out Fox won't have three wives; he'll have four." Miyu's eyes widened to which she said "Four eh? So who is the lucky one? Who is going to be wife number four?" After a pause, Fara just said one word, "me" before finishing off by saying "Anyway, Fox I did my part; I got us back home now it is time for you to once again resume command of the squadron, I'm falling back to my original position in the mix." Fox smiled before saying "very well Fara, you did good, like I knew you would; I am very proud of you, now let's get back to the others; all wings check in…" Fox's new recruits all gave their status reports and after that both Miyu and Fay did the same "this is Fay Spaniel, I'm okay; just a little emotional with you guys being back with us after six months away; I missed you guys!" "This is Miyu Lynx here; my arwing is fully operational, I'm glad you are back however; I'm a little bit angry with Falco at the moment, I'll tell you why once we are back at our makeshift base." Fox acknowledged what Miyu had said and like in the plans that both him and Fara drew up they used the debris of destroyed ships to mask their presence on their way back to Venom. Four hours later; Fox and the others landed on Venom and sure enough Miyu approached Fox and asked to speak to him in private to which Fox obliged "So Miyu what did the bird brain do this time?" to which Miyu quoted what Falco said verbatim, "well Fox, the reason why I am super pissed at Falco is because of what he said about you and the others being dead; his exact words _where 'it's been six months Katt… If Fox were alive he would've contacted us by now; as much as I hate to say this, I think that we have lost two of our best pilots…' _it's like he forgot about Fara; my best friend, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that he doubts Fara's skills and thinks she is a waste of space. It really pissed me off that Fara didn't even come into his mind when he said those words," Fox frowned at Miyu before taking a deep breath and saying "okay Miyu, I'll talk to him alright?" Miyu nodded before saying "could you also tell him that he needs to engage his brain before his beak?" Fox nodded and with that, Miyu thanked Fox and headed back to her room where both Fara and Fay were waiting for her. As soon as she stepped into the room both Fara and Fay jumped on her and the three of them began to embrace each other in a girly hug to which they had a catch up saying how much they missed each other and didn't want something like this to happen again and Fara couldn't agree more; she hated feeling responsible for getting Fox stranded on an unfamiliar planet before being thrust into a battle that he knew nothing about. After Fara had her rant, Miyu immediately changed the topic of the conversation by saying "SO… you and Fox huh? How did that happen, did he see you undress or something?" Fara blushed before saying "What? Wait, no! Uh, actually… during his wedding I was forced to wear a very revealing outfit during the ceremony; you saw everything and I mean _EVERYTHING! _Including my tattoo and uh... my cleavage; the outfit left virtually nothing to the imagination, I mean goddamn it Miyu; it was essentially a bikini and a loincloth. Y'know similar to Krystal's outfit from Sauria oh and y'know something else? It turns out that Krystal is royalty. More specifically a princess of her now dead planet; she is the last official member of the Cerinian royal family, it was her that performed the marriage of Fox to Sakura and Paige and now she intends on performing the marriage between Fox and I." Miyu looked at her and said "sooo, you aren't happy about it?" Fara chuckled and said "Actually, I am… but I don't think Fox is," Miyu looked at her and sighed before saying "don't be silly you crazy vulpine! I'm sure Foxy boy is happy about it; aw man you are one lucky girl!" the three fiends chatted about this long into the night while on another part of the base Fox was having a word with Falco about his poor choice of words, not disciplining him but advising him to be careful what he says in the future before telling him to go and apologise to Miyu, Fay and Fara; which he did and once that was over they started to write up a plan on how to get Great Fox II back in the air.

Meanwhile on Fortuna…

Bill was on the planet with Peppy and a few others as they looked up at the crashed starship to which Bill said "Oh man, this is a right mess that we're in; Hey ROB what is the status on the auto repairs system?" after a brief pause ROB responded "the auto-repair system is offline; it's major components are unsalvageable… New parts required." Bill shook his head before heading into what was left of Great Fox II's hangar bay and began to tidy around the place looking for replacement repair units in order to jump-start the repair process but they were all fried in the blast and just as he was about to lose hope Fox spoke over the radio "come in any Starfox members remaining on Fortuna, this is Fox McCloud, anyone respond!" Bill took a deep breath before saying "oh thank god you're back Fox; the mothership is FUBAR and we need replacement parts to fix it and before you say anything about the auto-repair function of the ship it too is FUBAR; so we need some salvage and an engineer or two to fix it," overhearing the conversation between Bill and Fox, Paige said "Hey Fox, my sister and I could probably do something about that; after all we brought some of our engineers with us to assist your mechanic with any repairs. Do you think that if he was given some help by our engineers, your mechanic could I don't know… Repair your mothership?" Fox paused for a moment before saying "actually that would be most helpful Paige, thank you!" he then hugged her and told Bill of the plan to which he said "Hell yeah! That's how we do it and who knows maybe the ship will be much better than before; like a phoenix from the ashes of its former body! The regent had better look out because if Great Fox II once again becomes airborne with the new upgrades he won't stand a chance!" With those words Fox Okayed the collaboration between Slippy and the Engineers from Celyse, who instantly got to work on rebuilding their mothership and began to draw up new blueprints for it!

To be continued…


	15. Chapter 15: Like a Phoenix From The Ash

Chapter 15: Like a Phoenix from the ashes

It had been three days since Fox and his team had returned to the Lylat system; Fay and Miyu were showing Paige and Sakura around their temporary base while Slippy and the engineers from Celyse began to work on what was left of Great Fox II while the rest of the team did stealth missions in order to gather resources undetected; they were gearing up for an all-out war against the 'regent' and his forces, they wanted him out of the Lylat system and completely removed from existence. During this time Fara and Fox were spending more time together putting battle plans into action and planning their strategies for their upcoming fight with the enemy forces; hours had passed and their final battle plan had been completed "So Fox, what do you think? If we hit the enemy from here and here, it'll disorient them enough for us to slip through and punch an even bigger hole in their defences leaving their destroyers vulnerable to attack," "While I like this plan Fara there are a few concerns that I may have about this battle, one of which is that blasted dreadnaught class cruiser the Dark Nova, that's the flagship of the 'regent' and from what our scouts tell us, his defences are really impenetrable; it'll take more than just our Arwings to bust through the defence lines and do any damage to the ship." Fara paused for a moment before saying "okay then Fox how about this? Instead of attacking them head on why don't we cut off their supply lines? I'm sure that will really destroy the morale of the enemy troops; if we intercept and steal their resource shipments it would only be a matter of time before they start to break apart so instead of it being an all-out fight it will become a war of attrition and with losing their supplies and resources to us, it would only be a matter of time until they turn on their leader but there is another problem; team Starwolf, I am sure that the 'regent' has them guarding the supply lines and with our Arwings as they are they will make mincemeat out of us and we cannot use stealth attacks on them because of their sensory net."

The discussion went on for hours as Fara and Fox tossed a few ideas between each other, Krystal then came in and said "ok guys it's time to eat; you've been at this war counsel for hours now and you both look tired, how can you fight the enemy when you are tired? Come on now, let's all eat as a family, me you, Kari, Paige, Sakura, Marcus and Fox; Falco and the others have already eaten and we can't draw up an effective strategy on an empty stomach now can we? Maybe Fay and Miyu could join us; they haven't eaten yet either so let's all eat and get some rest before we continue discussing our strategy." Fara agreed to this and just as Krystal requested; they all got together and spent time as a family while journeying down memory lane and while all of this was going on Slippy and the engineers continued to work on Great Fox II.

Down in the makeshift dry-dock…

Slippy and the engineers walked up and down Great Fox II's charred corridors and made notes to which the head engineer from Celyse said "No wonder this ship went down, you have too many unnecessary systems on this ship, it's a miracle it lasted as long as it did! Not that you Cornerian engineers are bad, not at all; however you were too busy trying to get the best of everything in order to get the upper hand against the enemy. You don't need transformation systems on this ship it'll be just as effective without it so the transformation circuits will have to go, however they can be repurposed into another ship and if we have two motherships we can have the advantage on the battlefield, also with the sleeping quarters, there are too many of them here, if we were to halve them putting one half of them in the original ship and the other half in a secondary ship; deployment could be made seventy-five percent more efficient and don't get me started on these weapons systems!" Listening to the engineer from Celyse; Slippy felt a little bit inadequate, she was quite well versed in battlefield technology to which he said "excuse me ma'am but what's your name? We have been working together for a few days and I didn't even consider asking who you were, my name is Slippy toad and you are?"

"Who, me? Oh okay sorry about that; my name is Akemi and I come from Celyse. I have been working in this field for twenty plus years, I'm thirty-five now and started this job at a very young age; I was fourteen when I started doing this, so how about you Slippy?" looking at this beautiful blonde haired Vixen Slippy felt all shy but replied "Oh erm, I've been doing this since I left the academy about twelve years ago, and now I feel like I am getting weak in my profession after meeting you and seeing your experience, but lately I have had my hands full with my wife and children so I haven't really been paying attention to my profession," Akemi laughed and said "well that's good because nothing is more important than family young Slippy, remember that; anyway let's continue with the walkthrough." And just like that they were both back to business.

After a very long and gruelling walkabout on Great Fox II, Akemi and Slippy compared notes and drew up a list of what resources they needed and handed it to Fox; who showed it to his family and they concocted a plan from there, calculating what was needed to rebuild the ship and how much was needed to fully repair it they began to run simulations and checked all of the calculations before going on their strategic mission. Looking at the list Fara's eyes lit yup and she said "okay then this is perfect! If we were to steal the enemy resources and use their own technology against them, it will be a big slap in their faces! I originally wanted to destroy their supplies but this is a far better plan so when are we going to do this Fox?" Fox went to say something but Krystal said "Well no time like the present eh Fox?" And just like that the mission to steal and utilise the enemy resources was well underway; after transmitting the battle plans to the rest of the team the fully reunited Starfox squadron took off and began the raid on the enemy supplies; during the fight, team Starfox split into different groups and attacked the enemy from different angles at the same time causing them confusion. It was only a matter of time before the enemy would be wiped out; but feeling that it was too easy Fara paused for a moment and voiced her concern "it's quiet Fox, too quiet; I'd have thought that there would be more than this and I don't like it…" Fox agreed with Fara and told the team to fall back and reassess the situation but no sooner had they done that the enemy reinforcements warped in being led by Wolf "so you're still alive Fox, this pleases me because I now have the privilege of killing you myself!" He then opened fire on Fox who evaded him easily "nice try Wolf but you'll have to try harder than that to best me!" then Fox turned to fight Wolf head on; letting rip with his twin lasers and nova bombs Wolf was on the defensive as Fox's attacks were relentless, he took out his miniature squadron of hostile forces with ease and with that he wasted no time inlaying into Wolf. But Wolf, being the coward that he was, used his own nova bomb as a flashbang and blinded Fox while he waited for his own team to come and back him up; seeing this Fara growled and said down the radio "you are one hell of a coward O'Donnell, you can't win fairly so you resort to dirty tactics well like you I can do the same thing!" She then waited for the warp gate to open in order to let team Starwolf through and no sooner had she taken up position the gate opened and in one fell swoop she attacked and destroyed Wolf's team with a combination of nova bombs and twin lasers while Fox was still incapacitated. Realising that he was going to lose he attacked Fara and let rip with an attack of equal magnitude, Fara took a few hits but she sneered and said "is that all you got Wolf?" As she taunted him Wolf got really angry and increased his attack power once again to which Fara said "too easy" she then used her warp drive and flew right towards Wolf before vanishing off his screens; as he looked around for her she warped back from another position and cut loose then when Wolf turned to face her again she was gone. After doing this for a few minutes Fara crippled Wolf's ship before saying "I hope you liked my Shadow dance technique Wolf because I have been saving it for you and your team! Get out of here coward or I will KILL YOU MYSELF!" Wolf then retreated as Fara went over to Fox to see if he was alright. Once Fox recovered the resumed their mission and got all the resources they needed to rebuild the ship.

Many hours later, team Starfox returned to Venom with all the enemy resources and just like that Slippy and the other engineers got to work on Great Fox II Straight away. After working on the ship for days at a time Great Fox II was once again up and running to which Slippy cheered and said "Yippee! Great Fox is working again! Oh and we have a second ship too! We had so many resources to complete our jobs and now it's done, so all that's left to do is now name and christen the new ship." To which Akémi said "how about we call it Great Vixen?" to which everyone agreed and Fox said "so now we have Great Fox II and Great Vixen?" Slippy nodded eagerly and said "yeah, Great Vixen is Great Fox II's sister ship and you want to know what the best part about it is? These two ships can interlock with one and other too create a virtually unstoppable combat platform but the best thing is that both ships can work independently so should things get hairy for the ships then can break apart and defend each other's backs; then once the enemy is beaten, the ships can interlock again and continue their assault." Fox was genuinely impressed by what had been achieved within such a short time; Starfox now had two ships to fight against the enemy forces and what made it better for him was the fact that the ships could interlock and fight as a single entity or individually by itself. With that thought in mind Fox smiled to himself before saying "now all that is left is to designate crew to each ship," without any hesitation Fara, Miyu and Fay volunteered to fight from Great Fox II as Krystal volunteered to captain the Great Vixen; learning that their princess was in charge of captaining the Great Vixen they along with the Celyse Defence force members who signed up to team Starfox and with both ships complete with a full crew compliment Fox decided that it was time to take off from Venom and reclaim the Lylat System starting with Corneria.

As the two motherships took off from the planet a sudden ambush of enemy forces decided to engage the two ships in an effort to destroy them while an enemy fleet fired upon them from space, as enemy fire shot across the bow of both ships the arwings took off one by one and once they were in the air, both the Great Fox II and the Great Vixen began the interlock procedure after a few close calls and a few near misses, both ships were finally interlocked and made a break for space; flying into enemy fire and raising the new barrier system, firing back at the enemy ships; wiping out a third of them before the arwings returned to their hangars ready for a jump to Corneria.

As soon as the jump calculations were complete and they arrived at their destination, the two ships separated and held a high orbit over what was left of Corneria, a few minutes after their arrival Starfox got a transmission from Peppy who said "I don't know how you managed to pull off what you did or how you came into possession of such an impressive ship, nor do I know how you managed to get a second mothership built out of spare parts but I am so proud of you at this moment Starfox, you have grown beyond what I even imagined; you've made an old man proud, now all that is left is the fight against the 'regent' take it to 'em Starfox!" with that the communications closed and there was a moment of relief. No enemy were around and it all seemed quiet; so seizing this quiet time Krystal decided to unite Fara and Fox in marriage; when the wedding took place, ALL of team Starfox was there and all dressed in similar outfits to the ones worn at the wedding of Paige and Sakura to Fox. Team Starfox were now at full strength and once the wedding was over they began to count down the days leading up to their final battle with the 'regent' and his forces.


	16. Chapter 16: Skirmish in the stars

Chapter 16: Skirmish in the stars

Many days have passed since Great Fox II was repaired and the completion of its sister ship the Great Vixen; team Starfox are now enjoying a little bit of rest and relaxation on Corneria, Krystal and the other girls have taken to wearing their flight suits again instead of the revealing outfits they had been wearing for a few months; Fox is just getting used to having for wives and is doing everything he can to look after his team. Falco and Katt are now married along with Bill and Marianne, Slippy is helping Amanda look after their children and Peppy has left on a holiday to Sauria with his daughter Lucy; Miyu and Fay are training real hard to get to the same level as Fox and his family and Fara is teaching her new fighting manoeuvre she calls the Shadow-dance while the Celysian Engineers are upgrading all of the arwings so they have the same capability as the Arwings of Fox and his family.

Looking at Fara, Fay asks her about what went on while they were on Celyse to which Fara told her everything right down to the point where Paige and Sakura nearly died. This made Fay worry about the up and coming battle with the 'regent' and his forces and she was right to worry because no sooner had Fara finished the story a nova-bomb went off in the capital followed by the sounds of the Cornerian people screaming in fear and agony; as the news team broadcasted the attack Fox grew Angry and told his team to move out but the problem as that only a few of the other Arwings had the new upgrades, forcing the ones without the upgrades to remain on both Great Fox II and the Great Vixen to which Fara exclaimed "Goddamn it! Why has it come to this? All I wanted was to spend time with my husband and be happy and now those bastards have launched a surprise attack on Corneria! Fox what should we do?" Fox looked at the engineers and asked "how long will it take to get the rest of the Arwings up to scratch with all upgrades?" Akémi looked at Fox with a grim look on her face and said "I'm sorry Fox but it will take at least one week to get the others up in the sky with the upgrades; that's the best that we can do."

Fox frowned before saying in an annoyed tone "Okay then that's not a problem; whose Arwings are upgraded and ready to go?" Akémi let out a deep and long sigh before taking out a data pad before saying "currently aside from the Arwings of you and your family that are ready to go, the ones that are available are: the cat's Paw, The Skyclaw, Bill's Arwing IV, Marianne's Sky scythe, Slippy's Bullfrog and Amanda's tadpole; the others are in the process of being upgraded, it is advised that you take them up and adapt your strategy, but don't worry; both Great Fox II and Great Vixen will cover you as best as they can, Godspeed team Starfox…" She then saluted to which Fox saluted back and said "all available Arwings prepare for take-off!" with that the ones who were available saluted and ran to the hangars under the din of the combat alert from both Great Fox II's and Great Vixen's AI systems:- "_Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! Incoming Enemy fighters; prepare for launch! All Available fighters launch and engage enemy forces!" _Both Fox and Krystal then launched their fighter pilots from their ships and on both Krystal's and Fox's command initiated the ship interlock system to which the AI announced: - "_Ship interlock mode initiated….. Synchronising…. Synchronising…. Synchronisation Complete; Verify ID patterns…" _Both Fox and Krystal gave their ID codes to the ship's AI and the ship AI replied "_ID patterns Verified…. Requesting Password to complete ID verification…_" Both Fox and Krystal paused for a moment and smiled before saying at the same time "ID password….Marcus." to which the AI accepted the verification and initiated the linkup of the two ships. After the linkup of Great Fox II and Great Vixen; Fox went to launch his Arwing when Fara stopped him, Fox I'm sorry but I cannot join this fight at the moment because there is something I need to…. Wait, it's okay never mind; I'll tell you when you get back okay? I'm just not feeling too well today."

Fox looked at Fara and said "are you okay sweetheart? Is it something to do with why you were sick and lethargic this morning?" Fara nodded to which Fox Okayed her to stay on the ship and just before he launched she said "Come back safe Okay Fox? Because I really need to tell you this; but the safety of Corneria is more important." Fox nodded before launching into space and as his arwing left the hangar she placed her hand on her belly and said "don't worry baby; I'll tell your daddy when he gets home; oh please be safe Fox because I don't want to have to raise our first child alone." Miyu looked at Fara who was clearly scared about losing Fox again to which she said "I'll tell you what Fara, if Fox Okays it I will join the fight in your place using your arwing," Fara nodded to which Miyu spoke over the radio "Fox this is Miyu are you receiving me over?" "Roger that Miyu you're coming in loud and clear," Miyu took a deep breath and said "Since Fara is incapacitated somewhat; would you mind if I flew in her place using her arwing?" Fox paused for a moment before saying "okay Miyu you have the clear to launch; I'll hang back and wait for you." Miyu confirmed her will to take part and launched before linking up with Fox and going into battle in Fara's stead.

Sensing the worry from Fara; Krystal radioed Fox and said "Could you switch to the secure radio channel Fox, there is something of importance that we need to discuss…" Fox switched to the channel that Krystal requested and said "okay Krystal I have switched channel so what's wrong?" Krystal sighed and shook her head before saying "it's not what is wrong Fox, but what is right; I sense a lot of anxiety from Fara, a lot more than usual. In fact the anxiety she is feeling right now is far worse than the anxiety she felt when you crash-landed on Celyse; now I know you hate me saying this Fox but, should things get too dangerous for you promise me this; promise that you'll return to Great Fox II and stay with Fara, I can sense a change in her. This is really important so please make that promise and keep it," Confused at What Krystal said Fox sighed like a flat tyre before saying "What is with everyone today? First Miyu requests to join the fight in place of Fara and now you are asking me to promise to return to the ship should I stumble into any danger; what is going on?" Krystal got a little bit annoyed and let out a small growl of concern before saying "will you listen to me Fox McCloud; I am not saying this for my own health you know! Can't you feel Fara's concern in your heart? She is really worried about losing you! Now I don't know all the details but I have noticed some similarities to a previous situation, it happened about TEN YEARS AGO, do you get it? Ten years ago; now do you remember what happened then?" Fox paused for a moment and thought about it; then it hit him… "Ten years ago you were pregnant with Marcus back then and you were … you were just like Fara is now, I gotta go back! Attention all Starfox pilots; I am passing on command of the squadron to Krystal, I'm returning to Great Fox II, Fox Out!"

He then did a somersault and flew back to Great Fox II Much to Krystal and Fara's relief; he then climbed out of his Arwing and found Fara sitting on the floor huddled up with her knees against her chest crying to which he ran over and sat beside her, sensing Fox's return Fara looked up hopefully and saw him there patiently watching her; she then latched onto him and held him tight to which he said "Why didn't you tell me about this Fara? You know family means more to me than some pay check," Fara got a little bit emotional and said "because I know how much saving Corneria means to you and I didn't want to get in the way of that, but thank you for coming back to the ship Fox; I was really scared that I was going to lose you to an enemy attack." Fox just looked at her with sympathy and then cuddled her in an effort to soothe her to which she just hugged him back and said softly "I know it's selfish of me to ask you this but could you stay with me on the ship until our first child is born?" Fox nodded and Fara just snuggled up and placed her head on his chest before going to sleep in his arms to which he gently picked her up and carried her to a bed so she could get a decent night's sleep. While all of this was going on team Starfox were fighting everything that attacked them under the watchful eye of Fox who grew restless as he wanted to fight with his team but then his eyes drifted towards the sleeping quarters he shared with his wives and his restlessness stopped; he had to be there for Fara right now, especially at this delicate stage of her life; after all, she was going to be a first-time mother soon and it would be a massive challenge for her so he decided that he would be there for her no matter what; like he was always there for Krystal and how he will always be there for the others should any of his other wives get pregnant.

Of course it meant that he was grounded for a while throughout Fara's pregnancy but he didn't mind it; after all he needed a rest from all the constant fighting that he had been doing lately and it was a welcome break to not have to fight for a while. After their first small skirmish the team came back and docked in the hangars and Fox made a ship wide announcement over both the Great Fox II and Great Vixen "Okay team; there is a reason that we are all here, I'd like to take this time to say thank you for all of your hard work during this trying time; you are all the best pilots I have ever had the joy to work with which is why, with a heavy heart, that I say this; from today I have transferred command of Starfox to Krystal as I am stepping down as commander of the squad, but don't worry it is only temporary because I have decided to take this time off and use it to spend time with Fara, who is currently pregnant with our first child so Marcus will have a little brother or sister to look after soon which is why I am sitting out of the battles to come; I'll be on Great Fox II supporting you all from the side-lines, at least until our new child is born and old enough to be looked after by a babysitter so as of today Krystal, being the second in command of the team, is now the first in command so follow her orders as you would mine okay? With that this meeting is over, Krystal you are now in charge." Krystal nodded and sent all of the other team members way before hanging back with Fox, who had Fara sleepily cuddling up to him and said "that's a very nice thing you are doing Fox, it's good that you listened to me this time; I'm very proud of you right now, so I guess the fights and strategies are in my hands now? I won't let you down, so while this is going on I'd like you to look after Fara until your new child is born; because from today she will need you a lot more than Corneria will." Fox agreed with Krystal and with that she set off to begin preparations for their next skirmish while Fox and Fara stayed out of the fight and spent a lot of time together to which Paige and Sakura thought to themselves "I can't wait till I become a mother too" they then smiled and followed Krystal out of the briefing room.

About half an hour after the meeting with Fox, the rest of team Starfox were out fighting the regent's forces as Fox and Fara watched on in pride as their team fought with ferocity to make up for them not being there; to which Fara said "Fox if we have a girl what shall we call her? I like the sound of the names Kitsuné or Vixie, what about you?" Fox paused for a moment before saying "I like the sound of Vixie since it was my mother's name and I think it would be a respectful gesture to name our first daughter after her nanna or if it's a boy I think we should call him James after my father." Fara paused for a moment before saying "hmmmm… I like that, either way we need to think hard about the names before I give birth." Fox just gave her a hug and they both watched the sensors as their team fought the enemy

Meanwhile out in the fray….

"Attention all wings; I'm detecting mass fold activity near our position, I think it's their main fleet! Take cover and scout the positions!" Krystal commanded over the radio to which Miyu replied "Roger that Krystal; moving to my position and assessing the situation!" "Roger that Miyu, but be careful; because you never know what they have in store for us." "Okay Krystal; I'll be careful, Fay if it is okay with Krystal could you come and back me up?" All Miyu got was static from the radio and informed Krystal but neither of them could get through to which Krystal said "Damn it they're jamming our signals we can't fight like this unless…" using her telepathy Krystal informed the team that they were being jammed to which Fox used the sensors of Great Fox II to locate the jamming signal source and one by one took out the jammers the team then restored their communications and flew right to the enemy fleet cutting loose with everything they had after about four hours of fighting team Starfox started to get tired to which the Cornerian fleet flew in to relieve some of the pressure as one by one the enemy fighters fell to the team but as soon as the enemy fighters were destroyed; Starwolf flew in again much to the chagrin of Krystal.

Fox analysed the enemy fighters and began to highlight weaknesses in the enemy armour but still team Starwolf fought hard taunting Starfox each time "Is that all you have Starfox? Come on this is too easy!" Not responding to Leon's taunts Krystal just turned to face his Wolfen and flew right at the aircraft and performed the manoeuvre that Fara created and damaged Leon's ship, but not enough to down him to which Panther laughed and said "Ah Krystal, it looks like you have grown slow in your time with Starfox so I will give you this one last chance to re-join the team if Wolf allows it that is," All Krystal did was fly right over to Panther's Wolfen, she then manoeuvred her cockpit above his and stared right at him before giving him the middle finger and said "the day I come back to you will be when hell freezes over; you pretentious, egotistical, moronic and odious asshole!" She then boosted behind him and let rip with her twin lasers destroying Panther's Wolfen before turning her attention to another anonymous pilot and gunning them down while Miyu and Fay attacked Leon from both sides as Falco attacked him from the front and Slippy attacked him from the back; after taking hits from four directions, Leon went down to which everyone then turned their attention to Wolf O'Donnell however; Krystal said "Back off everyone, this guy is mine, leader to leader, pilot to pilot." Wolf sneered and said "so you are the leader of Starfox now eh Krystal? Hah this will be a cakewalk!" He then attacked Krystal just enough to restrict her arwing and said "so much for the leader of Starfox, you aren't even scratching my Wolfen; so tell me why you are doing this? Is it out of love for Fox? Out of hatred for me or is it just to make up for your own failures in life?" Krystal grew furious and snarled "I do this Wolf O'Donnell, because I want to wipe out your boss; you do know that this 'regent' is my uncle right? He killed my father and destroyed my home planet when I was a little girl and he has to pay for his crimes against my family, my planet and my friends!" she then went all-out to destroy Wolf O'Donnell with her own two hands.

Watching on in concern, Fox could see Krystal's vital-signs become unstable; she had gone completely off at the deep end and was paying no heed to her own safety, so much so in fact that Wolf was on the defensive all the time before finally falling to Krystal's wrath but still, she was angry and went to take on the enemy battleship herself to which Fox cried out "Krystal don't be stupid! There is no way in Lylat that you could take on that battleship alone! Fall back and regroup with the others, please!" No response but then Marcus, hearing his father upset, ran over to the sensors and saw what was going on; he then gave out a little whine before saying "Mother please! Don't do this to us, calm down and think rationally! Mother please…." He then used his latent telepathic ability to get directly in touch with Krystal and instantly she calmed down and fell back, shaken at what had just happened to her. Why did she lose her cool to Wolf O'Donnell much to the point where she couldn't hear Fox pleading with her to stay calm, looking shocked; she slowly returned to the mothership and climbed out of the Arwing, before heading to Fox McCloud in an apologetic way to which Fox said "Krystal are you okay? I've never seen you that angry before, is there something you need to tell me?" Krystal looked up at Fox with glassy eyes and said "I… I don't know Fox, I don't know what came over me, I'm sorry… I'm…" Fox just hugged her and said "forget about it Krystal, you were probably just tired; that's all but I am proud of you. Look at how many enemy you took down and wow; you even tore through Panther and Wolf by yourself, I'm impressed but for now I think you should get some rest ok?" Krystal nodded and headed to the sleeping quarters, still confused at what had just happened to her… had she been tainted by the regent's power? Or was she just tired? She didn't know, but what she did know was that her recent fight with team Starwolf was very nearly the end of her; would she give in to the rage that consumed her? Or will the support of her family pull her out of this dark abyss that had begun to slowly engulf her and Starfox?

To Be Continued….


	17. Chapter 17: Final Take-off

Chapter 17: Final Take-off…

Nine months had passed since Krystal lost her temper and Fara has given birth to twin Vixens and named them Vixie and Kitsuné; Fox is back at the helm of Starfox and the regent's forces have been cut in half, After their recent battle they managed to acquire intel on the location of the Regent's stronghold. Seizing this chance, team Starfox have decided to start an all-out offensive against the regent, "all wings this is Fox McCloud, this is it our final battle to save Corneria and the Lylat System once and for all; now I know some of us aren't ready to fight just yet however I have faith in all of you, just pay attention to your gauges and keep an eye out for any surprise attacks. We all need to team up in groups of four and take it to 'em! Starfox… let's rock and roll!" with that pep-talk fox and his team started their attacks hitting the regent's supplies while cutting off any escape and with team Starwolf down permanently the brave members of team Starfox attacked with vim and vigour.

Great Fox II and Great Vixen had linked up and began a very heavy laser bombardment against the enemy fleet taking out the majority of their heavy-hitters; ensuring the safe engagement of the main enemy fleet wiping out each and every one of their fighters. With that skirmish over the team returned to their ships and Fox headed straight to Fara who was nursing the twins; as she felt her daughters latch onto her she shed a few tears of joy, she was a mother and felt really happy about it so much so that she didn't miss flying with the team; since she had higher priorities now her main concern was keeping the daughters of her and Fox safe.

The first thing Fox did when he got onto Great Fox II was head to Fara in an effort to see how she was, while bringing Marcus to see his little sisters with Krystal who had recovered from her episode quite well and as she saw her new daughters her heart melted; it melted even more when Vixie reached out to her and gave a cute smile while cooing at her, she then looked at Fara cautiously who nodded and allowed her to pick up Vixie who snuggled up to her while giving off happy little growls; after holding Vixie for a few minutes Krystal returned her and smiled before sitting down beside Fara asking her how she was, to which Fara said "I'm fine Krystal, just a little tired; being a mother is still new to me," Krystal looked at her and said "I understand because I was like that when I had Marcus; I didn't fly again until he was at least four years old, anyway I'm just going to head to Sauria for a bit because I still can't believe that I lost my temper to Wolf O'Donnell; maybe I am a bit stressed out with all these constant battles and spending time on my second home may help me focus because when the final fight comes I will need to be at my best." Fox looked at Krystal and said "ok then but please be careful; the regent may have spies on that planet and he may try to change you. Would you like me to come with you?" Krystal smiled and gently shook her head before kissing Fox and assuring him that she would be fine. Fox hesitantly accepted this and began to play with Kitsuné to which Paige said "if it's okay with you Krystal may we accompany you?" Krystal nodded and with that they left for Sauria.

Meanwhile in an unknown part of the Galaxy:

The regent and his team of scientists look into some strange flotation tank where an unknown Vixen is floating motionless as the Scientists take notes the regent chuckles at his own thoughts "With this new weapon I can stop Starfox from messing up my plans; I can use this woman to convince Fox to disband his team and finally live under my rule, Hurry up Mrs McCloud; you will convince your son Fox that it will be better with me in power!" he then left and began to plan his offensive while his science team worked on this new weapon against Fox "Hey are you sure this is the right thing to do Rincoe? I hate the idea of using Fox's mother against him; hasn't she suffered enough by dying once before?" one of the scientists said to which Rincoe replied "I hate the idea too but since the regent says it's a good idea then who are we to argue? Did you see the last person who challenged him on this? He was killed instantly and we ended up replacing him now I don't know what the regent has planned and quite frankly I don't care but if you continue to get in my way I will have you executed Souta Reinfeldt." Souta glared at him and said "you could try and kill me Rincoe but you will be dead where you stand should you try anything funny because I will kill you myself!" with that Souta walked over to the Flotation tank and placed his hand on it before saying silently so only he could hear it "don't worry Vixie; I won't let them use you in this horrid way just hang in there." He then barged past Rincoe who threatened him only to see Souta draw his finger across his neck making a choking sound before saying "remember what I said Rincoe and back off or I will kill you here and now."

He then headed for his quarters where he locked them down and opened up his comms array "This is Souta Reinfeldt calling Maisuna codec, come in Masiuna codec" there was a brief period of static before a girl with purple hair appeared on the monitor "This is Maisuna codec; is everything secure and in place?" Souta looked at her and said "Yes Masiuna, everything is secure so what is the plan now?" The young lady took a long drag on an e-cigarette before blowing out some vapour and said "Well the first stage is underway, once the cultivation process is finished she will be sent to a cell about seven-hundred meters down; where they will torture and harass that woman that they are bringing back until she breaks, we need to break her out of there and take her away from this universe dropping her into the reality where she is actually dead; the regent is messing with multiple parallel universes and using them to try and strengthen his forces against Starfox. We need to get this Vixie to her son and replace the dead Vixie with the living one; I hope that will strengthen Fox's resolve, I have been monitoring these anomalies for quite some time so we need to put an end to this." Souta nodded and said "I'll wait for the cultivation to be completed and then when I can I will get her out of there." Maisuna nodded and they both ended the communique.

About an hour later the cultivation as complete and Vixie was woken up by the regent who started off being nice and giving her food, this went on for a week before he changed and began to do what Maisuna foresaw; the poor woman had no clothes on and was beaten and humiliated every day this carried on foir weeks but Vixie never broke so they decided to cause her pain by poking and prodding her with sharp tools that were sharp enough to draw blood; Souta hated to see this so one day he decided that he would start the plan earlier than agreed upon. He used his clearance to get to the same level that Vixie's cell was on and took out the CCTV cameras before taking out the guards and once all that was done he locked down the cell block and began to bust Vixie out. As he approached her she backed away terrified pleading with him not to hurt her much to the point where she even offered herself to him just to stop him from killing her but to her surprise Souta just looked at her and chucked some of his spare clothes at her and said "Get dressed Mrs McCloud; because I am busting you out of here and stop with the offering yourself to me alright? I already have someone and besides it would be wrong for me to accept what you are doing since you are doing it out of fear so like I said; get dressed and we will take flight out of this place." Vixie was confused, why was this guy who worked for the regent helping her? Seeing the look of bewilderment on her face Souta said "judging by the look you are giving me, you are thinking 'why is this guy who obviously works for the regent helping me? Well I got news for ya, I don't work for that bastard; I work for a unit that protects people like yourself and relocates them to somewhere they will be safe…. Sort of," Vixie looked at him and said "What do you mean sort of? I don't understand what you mean; all I want to do is be with my son Fox ad my husband James, why am I here being tortured and harassed? It's not like I am important or anything, I'm just a mother who wants to hold her baby again!" Souta rolled his eyes and said "I hate to tell you this but the truth is that the regent has already destroyed them; both your son and husband are dead ma'am I witnessed it myself, I tried to save them but in the end they were too gravely wounded, the regent is one sick bastard however don't lose hope because you can still see your son again but the thing is well…. He will be an adult and have his own family but sadly your husband has gone from that world too; all that is left is just Fox McCloud but don't you worry your pretty little head about it, it'll be fine can you walk?" He held his hand out to Vixie to which she knocked it away and said "How can I be sure you are telling the truth?" Souta sighed and said "I didn't want to show you this but I guess I'll have too," he then showed her the graphic death of her son and husband to which she broke down in tears and sobbed bitterly to which she said "Please kill me, I have nothing here now just end my suffering…"she then pointed to his knife and presented her chest to which Souta said "I told you Vixie you dumb Vixen, there is hope so I will not kill you; why would I murder an innocent young woman? I promise you that this other Fox exists and I am sure he would be glad to see his mother again when she was first murdered by Andross and then after losing his father to the same man through betrayal so just humour me for a moment; here I'll show you the man you are about to see." He then showed Vixie her son Fox, fully grown up and fighting against the regent's forces to which she said "is… is that who my son could have been if he wasn't killed? I… I really want to see him but if this is a trick I will kill you along with myself do you understand?" Souta grinned and said "Fair enough Mrs McCloud, I'll accept those terms now I will ask again, can you walk?" Vixie tried to walk but stumbled only to be caught by Souta who said "Whoa there missy, you nearly knocked me down there, I know, since you cannot walk yet I'll carry you on my back but you need to get dressed first." Vixie nodded and got dressed before Souta helped her onto his back and stealthily took her out of the cell and back into his quarters where he started the comms array again "Maisuna this is Souta; I have Mrs McCloud here and we need a distraction so I can get her out of here!" No sooner had he said that there was a massive explosion that rocked the building and triggered the alarms to which Maisuna said "Is that a big enough distraction? I'll send you a special Arwing that can carry both of you and I will shortly follow in my own." With that in a massive open area, an arwing flew down automatically shooting all enemy that approached its landing zone to which both Souta and Vixie boarded it and as the canopy closed it took off busting another hole in the roof. Once it was high enough in the air the Arwing launched and flew at a high speed as the Regent's forces attacked them; after about ten minutes of flying and calculating the entry vectors Maisuna linked up with them in her arwing and they flew through an interdimensional rip to which Souta said "Here we go!" then they jumped into the rip and flew directly to where Fox was.

Back on Great Fox II….

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! UNIDENTIFIED WARP GATE ACCESS DETECTED! TEN SECONDS UNTIL THE GATE IS BREACHED! TEN SECONDS UNTIL THE GATE IS BREACHED!" Roused from his sleep Fox looked at the lights of Great Fox II flashing red and said "ROB what the hell is going on?!" After a pause ROB replied "I am detecting unauthorised gate activation near our position from an unknown location Fox; sensors indicate two unidentified Arwings approaching the threshold…" Fox got a bit worried and ran over to the comms console which suddenly activated as he approached "Attention Starfox; this is Souta Reinfeldt, I am inbound with a high-priority passenger on board my Arwing and I also have my wingman Maisuna codec inbound on my position, request permission to dock immediately!" Fox looked at the communications video and he saw a fuzzy picture of what looked like a human and behind him was a familiar Vixen looking terrified to which he said "Attention unidentified Arwing, who is your passenger? I say again, who is your passenger?" to which Vixie snapped out of her fear and said "Don't you recognise me Fox? It's me your mother! You are Fox McCloud aren't' you?" Fox got a bit annoyed and said "my mother is dead ma'am so how can you be her? Landing clearance denied," Souta got annoyed and said "normally I am reticent but this is just too annoying; for fucks sake Fox, what do I need to do in order to prove that this woman is who she says she is?"

Seeing the annoyance building on Souta's face she thought for a moment and said "okay Fox do you remember that time you were sick and in bed? You were in a lot of pain and very distressed so I decided to tell you a story to take your mind off of it," Fox's ears pricked up and said "okay then whoever you are since you are insistent that you are indeed my mother prove it by telling me what the story was," She paused for a moment before smiling and said "The story I told you was called the legend of Kitsuné, it was about a Fox-like spirit who pulled pranks on people and some actually fell in love with humans and got married; I told you that story because of its nature so, what do you say? Do you believe that I'm your mother now?" Fox whined a little bit before saying "Okay whoever you are, just come on board and we will have a DNA test to confirm your story; disable your weapons systems and enter the hangar, the same goes for your wingman Souta, disable your weapons systems and land in the hangar." Souta agreed and followed Fox's instructions and when they landed in the hangar Fox was stood there with his blaster at the ready but as soon as Vixie stepped out of the Arwing he dropped the blaster in shock; this woman looked exactly like his mother did; her gentle smile, her kind eyes and her soft voice, seeing Fox stunned Vixie said gently "Hello son, you have grown up into quite a handsome young man; It must've been hard to lose me to an assassination attempt on your father then losing him to betrayal;" she then began to cry and continued through her tears "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me the most, please forgive me Fox." Hearing those words softened Fox's heart a little bit and he said "It's okay mother I forgive you; but I still need to be sure that it's you and not some trick by the regent." Vixie accepted this and allowed Fox to have a DNA test done to her, both her and Fox headed to the medical bay of Great Fox II where one of the Cornerian air force medics took DNA samples from both of them and had them analysed. A few hours later the tests came back positive, a 100% match; seeing the results Fox dropped to his knees trembling before saying "mo.… Mother? Mother!" he then broke down into tears to which Vixie just hugged him and cried herself before saying "Fox my son; I'm so glad I got to see you! You don't know how long I have wanted to hold you again!" Both Fox and Vixie embraced for a while to which Maisuna got a little bit emotional after seeing the touching reunion between a mother and her son.

Fox then looked up with tearful eyes and said "But mother how are you alive? I saw you get blow up in that car bomb attack when I was a child, so… how?" To which Souta said "Well Fox McCloud this is what happened; The regent had been looking at your psychological profile in an effort to find weaknesses and he found quite a few however there was one weakness that he could exploit in an effort to get you to disband Starfox and live under his rule, he was going to use your mother to break you down and get you to give up quietly but in order for him to do that he had to break your mother down first; the first few days he treated her nicely but then after a while he started to torture your mother but she didn't give up hope, I saw this going on and decided to bust her out before any psychological damage was done to her so that is what I did and that leads us to where we are now. Heh, the regent sure was pissed when I destroyed his plans with Maisuna; y'see Fox both Maisuna and I are part of a specialist team that basically moves a vulnerable person to another safe-ish location where he or she can live out their lives happily and your mother is one such person, the regent killed both you and your father in her dimension and she had nothing left much to the point where she wanted me to kill her but I refused since I knew that you yourself were struggling with morale in this dimension so to heal two broken hearts we decided to bring her to you and will do anything we can to protect both you and her for the remainder of this fight." Fox listened to the story that Souta told him and found it hard to believe to which Maisuna said "look at it this way Fox, you remember Celyse? That in itself is in another dimension; well sort of, it is a system that exists but with the regent's power it was drawn into an alternate dimension and once you killed his henchmen there it broke free of said dimension and began to resume its normal life. This Vixie comes from a different dimension where she survives and both your father and you die is that clear enough?" Fox looked at her confused to which Vixie said "let's just agree to disagree shall we? I want to spend some time with my son and get to know this version of Fox McCloud, I am very proud of what he has become." Fox perked up a bit and said "Y'know mother, I have four wives now, one of which is on Sauria at the moment with two of my other wives, currently I have one wife on this ship and she is with our children and I'd like you to meet them," Vixie cocked her head to one side and said "oh? You mean I have grandchildren in this dimension?! Please let me see them," Fox nodded and spoke on the intercom "Fara, could you come to the medical bay; there is someone I'd like you to meet and please bring Kitsuné and Vixie," Fara acknowledged the transmission and headed to the medical bay and no sooner had she stepped in the door her eyes skipped right to Vixie to which her namesake saw her and cooed before reaching out to her making Fox's mother's heart melt "Oh they are so sweet, are these my grandchildren son?" Fox nodded to which Vixie went all broody and said "oh my aren't you two the cutest kits I have ever seen." Fara looked at her and said "Fox, who is this lady? She seems familiar somehow," to which Fox said "well you're not going to believe it but this is my mother; she has been brought back to me from another dimension and the DNA test confirms this." Fara approached Vixie and said "So you are my mother in law? It's great to meet you," as Fara got close to Vixie both of her daughters cooed and reached out to her making Fox's mother cry tears of joy as she held her grandchildren close to her heart who snuggled up to her ad went to sleep in her arms. She then returned them to Fara and hugged Fox saying how proud of him she was then Marcus came in feeling a little bit unwell and saw Vixie before saying "father, who is that woman hugging you?" to which Fox told him everything about her and using his telepathy, Marcus confirmed this and saw no hostile intent so he decided to hug her too and said "so you are my Nanna? I never thought I'd see you in my lifetime," to which Vixie replied "and I never thought that I'd see any grandchildren since in my dimension your father and grandfather were killed by that evil bastard the regent."

Marcus once again confirmed what she was saying before looking at Fox and saying "Father, I am sensing something evil approaching Sauria, we need to get there and save the others from harm"

Fox accessed his sensors and said "I don't see anything on sensors son are you…." Maisuna looked at Fox and said "Let me see your sensors for a moment… ah I see, these sensors are archaic, they are all configured wrong, let me sort that out," without saying a word Maisuna accessed the sensors while ROB tried to stop her but Fox allowed it and sure enough after a few seconds the sensors rebooted and confirmed what Marcus said to which Fox said "we have to get down there; mother can you look after the kids while my team go and save Krystal, Paige and Sakura?" Vixie nodded and said "anything you need me to do son and I will do it," Fox nodded and with that the whole team took off to engage the incoming attack from a very annoyed regent; Knowing what he was going to try and do on Sauria both Maisuna and Souta joined Starfox and headed to Sauria in an effort to intercept the regent so they could stop him from turning Krystal and the others evil. After a few minutes team Starfox got to Sauria and landed near Krystal who was already ready to fight the regent with all of her power but sadly it wouldn't be enough and she knew this so she sent a distress signal to Fox and Starfox who promptly arrived at the scene; a fight broke out and with the help of Maisuna and Souta Krystal and the others were promptly extricated from the situation and it was at this point Fox had enough; too many times has the regent fucked him over and too many times has the regent caused his family to suffer. Once Krystal and everyone was back on Great Fox II and Great Vixen; Fox and his team decided to attack the regent head on in a final take-off to forever remove him from the skies of the Lylat system and anywhere else that he had his eyes on this bastard was going down and going down HARD! He HAD to be destroyed and it was down to Starfox to do it!


	18. Chapter 18: A New Galaxy?

Chapter 18: A new Galaxy?

3 weeks after the regent attempted to turn Krystal and her bodyguards Fox made sure that no matter what would happen his wives and children would be safe; even If he had to go it alone he would but Krystal who was growing weary of the constant attacks could see it in Fox's eyes, he was close to snapping and that would not be a very good thing to happen. Whenever Fox got angry he'd always fly off on his own without giving any thought to what he would do or how many enemy would be lying in wait; he as always impulsive, listening to the stories from Falco and Slippy she learned of Fox's impulsive moments through his history; the first instance of this was when he first brought Starfox out of retirement and it was just him, Peppy, Slippy and Falco; after many hard fights throughout the Lylat system Andros began to taunt him and that was it, he told his team that he was going in alone much to the distress of Peppy who never stopped worrying about him due to his promise to Fox's father "Peppy, you must return to Corneria no matter what! Andross has returned and I am worried about my son, there is no doubt that he will try to eliminate my son after finishing with me; since he lost his mother I was all that he had and now with Pigma betraying us we are at a major disadvantage." "But James what are you gonna do? I can't do this without you old friend Andross has us surrounded and my arwing is in bad shape; I can't fight back, my fuel is low and with the amount of Androssian forces around us I won't make it!" "Peppy, you are a good pilot and I know you will manage to escape; I'll cause a distraction while you get out of here and GO! But promise me one thing Peppy, look after my son and make sure he doesn't do anything reckless because after this I won't be returning home to Corneria; god speed Peppy…. You are all that Fox has left now. Go on Peppy get out of here!" "James? JAMES! No… Nooooo!" there was an explosion and then silence and James was gone. The a few years after that Peppy joined Fox McCloud in the new Starfox team and observed Fox grow; the second instance was shortly after Starfox had an epic battle above Venom, brutally ripping the Androssian forces apart, once again Andross taunted Fox and he flew deep into the Venomian base alone and barely escaped with his life; his arwing was fucked and his shields were practically gone much to the point that his arwing console was sparking as the lights flashed red and the alarm was blaring in his ears.

This carried on up until he met Krystal on Sauria and once again found himself facing off against Andross who used him and Krystal to get the Krazoa Spirits in order to revive himself to once again try and take over the Lylat system; Fox put a stop to this and destroyed Andross once again, then came the Apparoid attack where he nearly lost Peppy and Great Fox it was also this fight that made General Pepper gravely ill forcing him to retire. Fox then messed up by sending Krystal away from the team breaking her heart and making her join up with Starwolf just to prove herself and really stick it to Fox; eventually she came back and they got married and had their son, with the birth of Marcus Fox and Krystal retired from Starfox and they just disbanded … that was until Bill grey convinced them to come back to save the Lylat system once again and after many fights, trials and tribulations we come to this final battle between the forces of the Regent and Starfox and as Krystal was observant she saw that same look on his face that he had when he took her off the team after the Apparoid assault was crushed so she voiced what was on her mind "Fox I know you are upset about what has happened to us all lately but I assure you that we will be okay; I don't want you getting all riled up and doing something stupid and impulsive, ending up with your death.

We need you here and so do your children so please Fox; think about your actions before you act, yeah it's annoying that the regent keeps on slipping away and yeah it is infuriating when he tries to rip apart our family but regardless of anything that he does, we will always be by your side just let us all in; your wives and your friends, we are all here to fight alongside you no matter what the cost. I say this to you because I have noticed that you are distancing yourself from us and whether it's intentionally or not it doesn't matter; but please don't rush off on your own like you usually do, yes Fox I have heard the stories of your past battles from Slippy and Falco, they are worried about you Fox; we all are so please tell us what is on your mind." Fox sighed and looked at Krystal before saying "I don't know what it is Krystal but…. Something feels off today and I don't know what it is; the thing is that I had a bad dream about Peppy and it is starting to make me worry. He hasn't checked in for over six months now, not since I got back from Celyse and well…" Fox never got to finish his sentence as the communications console of Great Fox II bleeped to which ROB said "High-priority communication from Lucy Hare…" Fox felt a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach and said to himself "Please… don't let it be what I think it is; Okay ROB put her through." As ROB put the message up on the monitor the first thing Fox noticed was the tears in Lucy's eyes as she said through stifled sobs "Fox McCloud are you there?" Fox felt really sick before saying "I'm here Lucy, why are you crying?" Lucy didn't say anything for a few seconds as she gathered her thoughts and said "Could you ad team Starfox come to Corneria ASAP? It's my father he…. He's in the hospital in very bad shape, he asked me to send for you also please hurry…." She then cut communications to which Fox said over the radio "Attention team Starfox; we need to get to Corneria hospital immediately!" all of the team confirmed the message and Fox along with his wives, his children and his mother launched from Great Fox II in an effort to promptly get to Corneria. About half an hour later tam Starfox landed on Corneria and ran to the hospital where they were met with a very upset Lucy who wordlessly took them to the ward where Peppy laid and seeing his father-figure like that really hurt Fox who went over to Peppy who said "Fox I'm glad you're here, I would stand up to greet you but erm…. Ah who am I kidding, I'm dying Fox; it seems my age has finally caught up with me and I just can't seem to breathe as easy as I once could, anyway I'm glad to see you all here and I just wanted to say that I am proud of all of you; the regent is on the run and his forces seem to be scattered around the place where the Cornerian air force seem to be taking them out with ease, you've done well to come this far; Starfox has grown so much with you in command and I couldn't be happier to see you all in my final hours. My last wish Fox is that you and your team eliminate the regent and his forces once and for all to once again restore peace to the Lylat System no matter what it takes." Fox grew a bit distressed to which his mother went over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder to which he said "Pappy before you go there is a few people that I'd like you to meet, I have my wives and children with me I also have my mother…. Well she isn't my mother from this universe, she is from another one and she'd like to see you…" Peppy perked up a little and said "What? Vixie is here? But how?" Fox politely told Peppy to calm down as Vixie approached Peppy and said "So you are the hero my son always talks about? I'm glad to finally meet you so I can thank you for all you did for my son in James's absence; you turned him into the hero I'd always imagined him being, just like his father." Peppy felt happy and said "I'm glad to see you again Vixie; listen I have a favour to ask of you, since I'm well fading away I want you to promise me one thing. Look after Fox in my place because he needs you right now as does his family so I'll give you the command codes to both Great Fox II and Great Vixen; you are now watching over team Starfox as I once did, Bill are you here?" there was a shuffle from behind Vixie before Bill said "I'm here General Peppy, what would you like me to do here?" Peppy took a deep breath and coughed for a bit before saying "With me and General Pepper gone it is now down to you to command the Cornerian defence force; I discussed it with General Pepper shortly before he died of his illness and he wanted you to take command of the forces, a thing that I agree with since you are a very capable commander and pilot so as of today you are now a general. You don't have to leave Starfox; you just need to split your duties like I did and as my last duty as General I am transferring your fee into your accounts Starfox, please use it well and keep the memories of both me and general Pepper alive. Good bye Fox… old friend." Peppy then closed his eyes and died peacefully under the respectful gazes of Starfox to which Fox said "it is a sad day for both Starfox and the Cornerian army; at twenty thirty hours, General Peppy passed away peacefully in his sleep. We have lost two great men in this battle and their memories will remain forever in our hearts; God Speed General Pepper and God speed General Peppy. We will forever honour your bravery and general dedication to duty; may you both rest in peace." Fox then stood to attention with tears in his eyes and saluted to which all of team Starfox followed suit; Lucy then broke down into tears as her fiancée comforted her to which Fox said "Okay Starfox, we have the last wishes of a great man to carry out and after our fight is over we can honour their memories properly. I know it is painful but we must carry on regardless because this war has gone on long enough and it is time to end it once and for all…. Starfox, move out!" All of Fox's team went to leave before they were stopped by Lucy saying "Wait! I'm coming too, I want to keep my Father's memory alive just as much as you and you've seen how capable I am Fox, remember?" Fox nodded and said "very well Lucy; you can join us as an honorary member of Starfox because we could do with your help. Alright team let's go!" with that Starfox returned to Great Fox II and Great Vixen where they wrote up their final battle plans for the fight with the regent.

Six Months later….

Fox and his team launched from their respective ships with a renewed sense of purpose; they wanted to carry out Peppy's final wishes and that was what they did, after an hour of flying around looking for enemy they finally found a large pocket of the regent's fighters to which one of them said "SHIT! It's Starfox they have finally come out to play; let's teach 'em a lesson they'll never forget! All UNITS ATTACK!" No sooner had the enemy commander said that an epic fight erupted and team Starfox had become unstoppable it was twenty Starfox members fighting against almost two hundred enemy fighters; Vixie McCloud watched on in pride as she saw Starfox fight with all that they had to which she said to her grandchildren "your parents are _really amazing,_ I'm glad to be at the helm of their ship watching over their battle ROB has the targeting computer been recalibrated?" to which ROB said "Affirmative Captain Vixie; All targeting sensors have been recalibrated and ready to target enemy ships." Vixie nodded and said "Okay ROB, target the enemy battleships and fire; hopefully this will help Starfox…" ROB nodded and fired a volley of lasers at the enemy carriers and said "Attention team, I have taken out four enemy battle cruisers; use their debris to gain the upper hand, they need to be eliminated, not one can escape." The whole team acknowledged Vixie's command and pursued the enemy fighters in an effort to eliminate them from the skies. The battle lasted for hours before the enemy pilots were all destroyed to which Vixie said "Okay team; good job, the small-fry have been taken care of, now it is time to go for the big fish; Sensors are detecting the regent's flagship about eighteen parsecs away, activate your space-fold drives and attack his position; but be warned, his ship the dark nova may be aware of his forces being torn to pieces and he may try to escape while he uses his remaining battleships as shields. Eliminate him and his remaining forces then return home; God speed Starfox," with that she closed the communications and sat back placing her hands on her heart in a silent prayer before saying "Please hurry back guys; It's getting kind of lonely here," to which ROB said "my sensors indicate that you are worried about your son and his team? They will be fine I shall set Great Fox II and Great Vixen to support mode…" to which Vixie nodded and turned her eyes to the sensors.

After a while Fox and his team had finished mopping up the enemy forces until there was only the regent's flagship left and Fox said "all right team I'll…" he got interrupted by Fara saying "Oh no you don't Fox McCloud, you are NOT going in there alone; I don't care if you are the squadron leader, I will not let you throw your life away on some stupid errand to be a hero that we all know you are." Fox went to protest to which Krystal Added "She's right Fox, each time you have gone it alone you have nearly died and us as mothers to your children do not want to tell them that their father has died in some stupid gung-ho act… We are coming with you regardless of what you said,"

Fox sighed ad went to say something to which Falco chimed in "She's right buddy, they both are; if you are concerned about the remaining fighters out here don't worry about it, the rest of the team will clean up while you and your wives fly in there and destroy the regent once and for all, also we have another wave of the Cornerian air force backing us should we fuck up and let a few slip by and judging by the size of that carrier I am sure that the regent has a large air force in his hangar bays just waiting to escape after you destroy this ship so don't be stupid and listen to your friends for once." Fox growled slightly before sighing and finally saying "Fine, Fara, Krystal, Sakura, Paige Slippy, Bill and Falco, you are with me, lets rip this ship apart from the inside! The rest of you, clean up out here and return to base." All of team Starfox acknowledged the order and Fox with his hand full of support flew right into the regent's ship and switched to walker mode and the cut swathes through the enemy forces that where holed up inside. After a very long sweep from deck to deck Fox finally got to the regent and began his assault against him as Krystal, Paige and Sakura covered him from the sides; after a long battle the regent finally fell and Fox said "right with the regent down we have one more thing to do…. Blow this ship up and any remaining enemy inside along with it; Krystal, Paige and Sakura; I take it you will want to do this? Very well, you can take out this ship's reactor core while myself and the others clear you a path." Krystal, Paige and Sakura jumped at this chance and did as Fox requested and blew up the reactor core. Once the core was destroyed the ship PA announced "DANGER! DANGER! REACTOR CORE BREACHED! REACTOR CORE BREACHED! SELF DESTRUCT IN THREE MINUTES!" with that the ship light flashed red and the sirens wailed as Fox and his team flew through the exploding halls of the ship; after they got to the entryway the ship computer counted down from three seconds and as soon as team Starfox flew out of the breach they made the ship exploded as the remainder of the regent's forces flew out of the hangars and jumped to another place; luckily detecting the overload on the Dark Nova, Vixie and ROB put a tracer on the fleeing ships and said "Well done team, return to the ship to rearm, refuel and if needed repair your ships; there is one final mission for you to go on and that is to eliminate the remainder of the enemy forces and don't worry about losing them, ROB and I have a trace on their location; they have landed on a planet called Saharis; A desert planet a lot bigger than Corneria, they seem to have some architecture based on the old world of Persia from the Sol system on the third planet. I'm sending you to the Karaien System where the planet is; but you will need to dress carefully, it is really hot there and in your current flight gear you will pass out from the heat so I guess you'll be dressing like Ancient Persian people," the minute Fara heard that she said "Does… does that mean that I have to wear _**THAT**_ outfit again?! Oh man, well I guess it cannot be helped? I guess?" Fox chuckled and said "why are you so shy Fara, I've seen you in that outfit before; heck I've even seen you in less than that so why?" To which Fara said with a big sigh "it's not that I'm embarrassed to be seen in that outfit again by you, it's being seen in that outfit in front of total strangers; you KNOW how self-conscious I am and if my research is correct; the men of that era where very erm…. Misogynistic? I think that's the word, yeah they saw women as property and would take them whether they wanted to be taken or not I bet they even had Harems…. Oh wait I'm in a harem… That doesn't matter! What matters is that they may try to kill you to take myself, Krystal, Paige and Sakura for themselves. Can you fight them off if they try that funny shit? Wait what am I saying, of course you can but… Ah, I'm just gonna shut up now, Sorry Fox I'm just a little bit worried about you that's all because I know how you get when someone attacks you whether it be for a reason or not, they attack you and you lose your temper and it gets even worse when they taunt you so…" Fox smiled and said over the radio "Don't worry Fara, I won't lose my cool; after all I have a lot more to lose now and if I was to die I'd lose the chance to see my children grow up and I hate to think how it would affect you if I was to die, it'd be the same for my mother and General Peppy's final wish. If I die I'd let them down; hell I'd probably let my father down if I was to die in that way and I cannot do that, especially not now, not when we are so close to restoring peace to our homes." Hearing Fox say that made his family breathe a collective sigh of relief to which Krystal said "I'm glad to hear you say that Fox and once this fight is over the girls and I will have a little surprise for you at the end of it all so don't go dying on us honey." Fox acknowledged what was said and they all set off for the final battle.

Meanwhile on Saharis…

A purple Female cat wearing multiple necklaces and body decorations dressed in a belly dancing outfit walks to work under the lustful glares of several men and says to herself "Why, Why do they do this to me? All I want to do is make a living while looking for my sister; I have told them time and time again that my heart belongs to another, it sickens me. I'm the princess of this planet so why can they not show me the respect I need? Oh wait; I'm incognito here aren't I? But still!" as she talked to herself, she heard a familiar voice saying "If you keep on talking to yourself like you are now Felicity; you will be locked away for being insane and you KNOW what they are like in those places." To which Felicity looked up and said "Oh hey there Chronor, how are you?" the young man dropped down from the roof and landed beside her saying "I'm fine Felicity, just peachy; look I know you are hating this little deception but it is the best way we can get information on your sister's whereabouts, Oh and I see your rocking a few belly-piercings; they look good on you but I know you hate them right?" Felicity sighed and said "yeah I do hate them but at the same time I don't; it's complicated, the only thing that bothers me about them is they itch quite a lot and they hurt from time to time… agh especially if you catch them on something and they get pulled on by your clothing." Listening to Felicity's rants Chronor smiled and said "Well I guess you need to be careful right? I'll look after you no matter what ok?" Felicity smiled and gave him a loving hug before saying "Yeah I do need to be careful; this is why I love you Chronor, you really care about me and will stop at nothing to keep me safe."

After that moment Felicity headed to work and saw the other dancers standing in a group looking impatient to which the owner said "So finally you decided to grace us with your presence," Felicity looked at him and said "But sir, I don't start for another half hour, check your watch you'll see that I am on time or rather I'm early…" The owner sighed and said "while yes you are early, you still needed to be here earlier; I have already told the girls about an update to their contract and it's the same with you." Felicity read through the contract and said "What the hell is this? Since when are we duty bound to sleep with the patrons?! I ain't a whore, I will never sleep with a customer even if they paid me an ample fee and I am a dancer not a hostess." She then stormed off to which the manager went to confront her only to be stopped by one of the other girls who said "don't worry about her boss we can manage without her; if she wants to dance then let her dance." The manager sighed and said "fine but you all have to do extra since she refuses." The girls nodded and once again left for their duties while Felicity just slammed the door to the establishment and stormed off to the nearby oasis where she sat down beside the water crying before saying "No way in hell am I gonna debase myself for a bunch of perverts! I guess I have to find another way to find my sister instead of doing the rounds at dancing parlours; I guess that means I don't need these anymore." She went to remove her body jewellery before remembering what Chronor told her and smiled; she then looked up and saw some unfamiliar craft fly into the atmosphere of the planet in haste, she watched where they landed and noticed several unfamiliar men that she didn't like the look of, climb out of their cockpits so she decided to shadow them and listened to what they were saying "Attention good people of this planet; we come here with a warning for you, there is an evil team called Starfox following us to this planet. They want to take it over and use it for their own ends; they already took over our planet Corneria and killed our leader the venerable regent, they could be coming here to take this planet for themselves like they did with Corneria and we need help fighting them off! Will you help us?" There was a cheer from the people of the planet and listening to what was said Felicity began to believe them; shortly after the other pilots flew in a large group of other aircraft flew in and using her binoculars she read the name plates and saw the icon of a Fox with wings on their aircraft so being curious and wanting to save her people from the 'evil Starfox' She went to confront them. As Fox landed with his team they saw that a massive army had amassed against them and they were greeted by threats and calls to leave the planet; Fox tried to explain the situation but the people wouldn't have it so Fox went to leave only to catch Felicity's eyes and the minute their eyes met She knew that what the other guys said was a lie, so she summoned Chronor who asked her what she wanted while she was writing something on a piece of paper and once it was done she said "take this message to our quote unquote new enemy, I wish to talk with them to see if we can come to an amicable agreement but don't tell anyone that you are doing this; make it look like you are attacking them but don't actually attack them. You'll need to put on a show for the people so they don't get suspicious now go." Chronor nodded and as he approached Starfox he made it look like he was going to kill them but at the last moment as he got in close to Fox he discreetly put the note in his pocket before making it look like Fox actually hit him but before he did he said to him quietly "look here outsider, you need to play along here; my friend over there on the far dunes; y'know the cute looking lavender cat with the cute body jewellery that is currently staring at you and your team? Yeah, she wants to talk to you all alone preferably somewhere safe where these idiots won't be able to harm you and your cute teammates." Fox nodded and made it look like he swatted Chronor away who went over the top to make it seem worse than it really was; causing Felicity to massage her brow and shake her head before disappearing behind the dunes saying "Chronor, you complete and utter HAM!" she then chuckled before walking back to the oasis where she waited for Fox's reply."

Late that night Fox discussed what had just been proposed to him, to which Fara said "be careful Fox, you don't know if these people are telling the truth; for all you know this could be a trap." The whole team nodded in agreement and with that Fox wrote his reply and agreed to meet Felicity on Great Fox II. As the time grew closer Fox got a little bit worried, Felicity was about an hour late for their meeting but no sooner had he headed to Great Fox II's scanners he was hit by another horrible thought… What if she had been found out? Fox knew how conniving the enemy were and he also knew how cruel they were so he ran a scan for both the life-signs of Chronor and of Felicity and about five minutes into the scan he found two matching life-signs but they were really weak to which he said "Oh shit! Krystal Sakura, Fara, I need your help here; Krystal see if you can sense anything from Felicity and Chronor and Fara be ready to deploy the arwings, Sakura I may need your medical expertise. Felicity and Chronor are late for the meeting and I have a really horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach." Krystal Nodded and used her telepathy to try and find Felicity to which she said "Fox you were right to worry, I sense a lot of distress from Felicity and I am getting no response from Chronor; I think they have been found out!" No sooner had Krystal said that Fox got an SOS call from Felicity, "Starfox, I need your help! Chronor is dying and I am under heavy attack from your enemy and a few of my own people please hurry!" As soon as he heard that Fox deployed his team to rescue Felicity and try to save Chronor but they arrived too late, shortly after they launched Chronor died from his wounds and Felicity was gravely wounded. As they got there Sakura ran over to save Chronor but ultimately failed and turned her attention to Felicity who was distraught over losing her best friend.

About five hours later Felicity was stable but her heart was broken; Her best friend who had been with her since they were children was now gone and she was n closer to finding her sister, this caused her to go into a depression and it upset Fox, he didn't know how to snap her out of it and when he went to try and talk her out of her depression Krystal placed her hand on his shoulder silently and shook her head before escorting him away and said "Fox, I know seeing Felicity like that is ripping you apart but there is nothing that can be done; the only way she can get over it is by doing it herself while we do everything we can to support her. The best thing we can do is have her work this out herself" Fox sighed and nodded before walking away with Krystal while Felicity dealt with her thoughts, "Well Chronor is gone and I am no closer to finding my sister… the only thig I can do is try to convince the people that Starfox are the good guys here but I don't know if they'll listen to me; after all I am their princess and I have gone quote unquote missing leaving a vacuum to be taken up by the assholes that elped the Fox's enemy kill my best friend and they will pay for that, mark my words." With that Felicity approached Vixie and said "Excuse me Mrs McCloud but I need you to pass on a message to Fox for me okay? Could you tell him thank you and… and I'm sorry," Vixie looked at her confused and said "Sorry? For what my dear?" Felicity sighed and said "For making you and your team work for me; I know you want to fight the enemy but they are on MY planet and well… this is now a civil matter and I hate to say this but, you are going to need to work for me or leave this planet to destroy itself with me on it; it doesn't matter to me anymore not since I lost my best friend because now I have nothing left for me here. To be honest I don't care if this planet does explode at least it'll kill me and the intruders of this system so I really don't care if I die here." Vixie got annoyed with her and went to say something but saw the look of devastation in her beautiful red eyes and took a deep breath before saying "My child; your death won't solve your problems and here is a thought, what if your sister is actually alive? How do you think she will react when her sister wipes out their planet in a fit of petty revenge rage? Yeah the one you love has been taken from you but that doesn't mean your life is over you silly feline! Look at me for example, in my original dimension I lost both my son and my husband to the regent who is now burning in the fires of hell for his actions; and my son, He lost me… well another version of me, he then lost his father to betrayal and now he has also lost General Pepper and General Peppy; both of them great men who were like father figures to my vulnerable son but did he give up? NO he didn't; he is going to carry on regardless so I'm sorry Felicity but I cannot pass that message on if you want it passed on then you will have to do it yourself." Felicity looked into Vixie's green eyes and saw a sympathetic and gentle gaze being given to her and she broke down into tears to which Vixie just gave her a hug as she cried into her chest to which Vixie said through tears of her own "There, there Felicity; it'll be alright those bastards will pay for their crimes against you and your family, my son and I will make sure of it so please reconsider what you have just said." Felicity just buried her face into Vixie's chest and sobbed bitterly as Fox's mother comforted her.

After a good cry Felicity felt better and she found herself more determined to fight and survive than she felt before; maybe it was Vixie's warm comforting, motherly embrace or maybe it was her own heart wanting to go on or maybe it was both she didn't know; but what she did know was that she was changing and shew asn't going to give up that easy, not after being maternally chastised by the more experienced Vixie McCloud as they days went on Felicity found herself growing more determined to work with Starfox in an effort to remove the cancer that was the regent's remaining forces from the planet Saharis with the help of Fox McCloud and his close-knit family and friends of team Starfox. After the pep talk Vixie gave Felicity she spoke to team Starfox and asked them to help her to which Fox said "We'd gladly give you a bodyguard detail princess so erm… who would you like to come with you back to your planet?" Felicity paused for a moment before saying "Well, I'd like you Fox and I'd also like to have Fara, Krystal, Slippy and also I'd like Falco and if possible I'd like Bill to come too. The enemy are well dug in so our best point of action will be the palace… or what is left of it." Fox nodded and with that Fox's team and Felicity returned to the surface of Saharis and began to stake out the palace about an hour of observations later Fox and his team began to stealthily take back Felicity's place using silenced versions of their weapons but Fox decided to use the staff weapon. With the battle plan now in place Starfox crept into the palace using whatever cover they could silently taking out the enemy soldiers and knocking the hired help unconscious not one enemy soldier that occupied the palace was spared; they eliminated them all and secured the palace to which Felicity, stunned at the brutal efficiency of Starfox, just looked at them in awe as the communicated wordlessly with gestures and looks then as they approached the sealed throne room Fox was caught unaware by a young man jumping out at them and viciously attacking him with twin sabres and Fox looking at this young man decided to use his good faith and went on the defensive until this young man tired out. When he finally did tire out he told Fox to kill him for his failure to defend the palace from them to which Fox said "And why would I do that young man? You have a lot of skill so why aren't you fighting alongside your new masters?" The young man gave Fox a dirty look and said "How fucking dare you? Why would I want to fight alongside your soldiers? You are all cruel bastards who killed my little brother and probably the princess too!" Fox went to say something to which all he heard was a very loud ***SLAP*** followed by an even more aggressive "HOW FUCKING DARE YOU?! Do you know who these people are Andarus? This is team Starfox… THE GOOD GUYS! Not the bad guys; I'll have you know that they did everything they could to save Chronor but he was too badly wounded to carry on and were it not for them I would be dead too, dead as a doornail! so you owe them an apology and you will show them some respect; consider that a royal order from your princess that you revere so much!" The young man looked at Felicity and saw that she was who she said she was and dropped to his knees like a sack of potatoes into a respectful bow before apologising to Fox who said "Nah, Don't worry about it; if anything I admire your spirit, you can do some real damage with those blades of yours; hey I have an idea, why don't you join us in our fight against the bastards that attacked this planet and killed your brother?" to which the young man said "Nothing would give me more pleasure than avenging my brother and those who have died in defending this place." Then with that he let them into the throne room and secured it behind them alongside him and Felicity." As Fox got to know Andarus he saw that he had potential and said "Tell me Andarus; where did you learn to fight like that?" to which Andarus said "I learned it from watching Princess Serena; Felicity's big sister before she vanished as she watched the outsiders breach the atmospheric ceiling of this planet but as she escaped the palace was hit and hit hard which is why it is in ruins right now but the most important part, well for me actually is still mostly intact and that is the training arena. I go there frequently… Hey I have an idea Fox, Why don't you and I go there now and train? While you stood your ground with me quite well the fact is that you still need to improve both your offensive and defensive moves and with my training you will be able to fight a lot better than you do now but what it all boils down to is Felicity's decision; I wonder if she will let you and I train?" After saying that; Andarus approached Felicity and said "Excuse me Lady Felicity but would you mind if I train with Fox McCloud? I feel he needs it."

Felicity paused for a moment as she sat on the throne and said "Look Andarus, I can understand why you wish to train Fox McCloud but in all reality can you actually do it? I saw how he fought you off and have observed his fights frequently; the only reason you stood a chance against him was because he held back… You see that staff weapon on his back? That weapon is very powerful as is his blaster that is hanging from his right hip; if he used those in combination and didn't hold back you would be dead by now, but I guess if you want to try your luck against him then I suppose I could allow it on one condition….. I watch the both of you training and maybe join in; is that acceptable?" Fox nodded and Andarus was hesitant and said "but Princess, our training can get very heated; I can feel it radiating from him. He has a strong energy about him and if cultivated well, can be utilised in many ways to protect his family and whoever he works for next." Felicity gave him a look as if to say 'That's enough; those are my terms' and in the end Andarus accepted Felicity's terms and conditions before starting to train Fox and he was just as brutal as Peppy was when he was alive.

As the training continued between Fox and Andarus; Felicity watched in awe at just how powerful both Fox and Andarus were, she was on the edge of her seat watching and when she couldn't stand it anymore she jumped into the training and fought with a lot more ferocity than both Fox and Andarus could muster up together and during the training Felicity was enraptured; she couldn't remember the last time that she felt this alive. This training lasted for hours and as Fox knew it would; Felicity ended up on top each time to which he said "wow Princess; you really are powerful, heh I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of you that's for certain! So I have to ask this; why don't you cut loose against your enemy? Because if you did that; then you wouldn't need us to fight for you so why?" Felicity paused for a moment before saying "the fact is Fox McCloud; I hate violence, I'm more of a pacifist. Like you I try to avoid violence if I can help it and I'd much prefer a peaceful solution to the problems but with these bastards that isn't an option; they killed Chronor they made my sister run away and they tried to kill me; Hell they even ran a smear campaign against Starfox and that just pisses me off, after all you are a great bunch of guys but I'm a little puzzled because it appears that you have more women than men on your team what puzzles me even further is that you have four wives Fox; Princess Krystal, Princess Paige, Princess Sakura and Fara; you even have three kids; two of which are girls, now I have heard of harems here on this planet but not on other worlds… hey do you think that I might be able to live on the same planet as you one day because I'd like that. You and your team are like siblings from another mother to me; it's strange because you have only been on this planet for a short time and already you are like a brother to me Fox." Listening to Felicity Fox found himself confused and said "what are you saying Princess? Are you telling me that you wish to leave this planet behind?" To which Felicity said "Fox… there is NOTHING left for me here; my sister is fucking gone, the man I loved is dead, my family has been torn asunder and to make things worse those bastards that came through before you have irreversibly corrupted the people of this planet so what do YOU think?! To be honest I don't care if this planet explodes anymore." Fox went to chastise Felicity but saw the tears in her eyes and sighed before looking at her sympathetically and to surprise him further she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him before burying her face into his chest and began to cry softly into his chest so Fox placed his hand on her back and patted it gently before saying "Felicity; while I can understand your hatred for this planet right now, you mustn't forget that this is your home; in the end while yes this planet is in a bad way it can still be saved." Felicity hugged Fox tightly and said "but Fox it's too late; the planet is already decaying, it can't be saved and since I don't want to die I would like to… well I would like to join your team as a medic at least and maybe a bodyguard for your family, I am very good at treating wounds which is why Chronor lasted a bit longer than he would have and at the same time I am very adept at learning things quickly. Also I'd like to have Andarus with me and my sister if she is still alive and we find her, Look I know it's a lot to ask for but please would you at least consider it?"

Fox held Felicity gently and took a deep breath before looking at his wives who nodded in unison to which Fox said "Alright Felicity you can join us but you need to be careful up there because you never know what is coming around the corner; I know this all too well as I have had my fair share of spills up there and my latest one stranding me on an unfamiliar planet where I met two of my four wives then I had a few near misses with the regent's forces; it is hard work being a leader of a large team, but the funny thing is that it wasn't me who founded this team, it was my father who founded it along with Peppy and that traitorous bastard Pigma who quote unquote volunteered for the assignment and of course when they got there he attacked my father and Peppy;" feeling his anger rise slightly he took a deep breath and continued "Peppy managed to escape because my father sacrificed himself so Peppy could return to Corneria and inform both me and general Pepper what had just occurred. Since then I have made my fair share of mistakes and had all sorts of regrets and well… I don't want any more regrets in my life than I have already;" he then turned to Krystal and said "I still feel bad for what I did to you Krystal and I can never erase what I did to you back then." Krystal sighed like a flat tyre and said "oh for god's sake; are you _STILL_ hung up on that? Jesus fucking Christ Fox, please get over it because I forgave you for that mistake YEARS AGO remember? So just stop it okay sweetheart?" Fox looked at Krystal and said "I know but there is a reason I am saying this; like I said I have regrets and I really don't want to make another mistake like that one, I broke your heart Krystal; much to the point where you ran off and joined Starwolf.." Krystal let out an angry growl and said "Why did you remind me of that you asshole?!" to which Fox said "because Krystal… they are back." No sooner had he said that a laser bombardment rocked the palace and the voice of Wolf O'Donnell rang out "Starfox I know you are hiding around this pathetic planet like cowards; come out before I start levelling this place with my new weapons given to me by the regent's leftover soldiers that your team forgot to wipe out… we are here to avenge the regent and we will do so by taking your head to his son who has promised to pay us handsomely." At that point Fox snapped and screamed down the comms line "WHY DON'T YOU JUST FUCK OFF O'DONNEL! WHY WON'T YOU JUST STAY FUCKING DEAD?! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR SHIT AND I WON'T REST UNTIL YOU ARE BURNING IN HELL ALONG WITH YOUR BELOVED REGENT!" Krystal knew what was coming next as did the rest of Starfox. Now that Fox was pissed off and fed up there was no stopping him; his anger overrode his common sense and without saying a word Fox transported himself to Great Fox II and before ROB even knew what was happening; Fox launched his Arwing with his eyes blazing in rage, all Fox could feel was a deep rooted bloodlust against team Starwolf that would only be satiated by blasting them into atoms and Krystal knew this all too well and cried out in despair as she saw Fox's Arwing blast out of Great Fox II's hangar bay with the G-diffuser system at full pelt to which she cried out "Fox don't be stupid! You'll be killed! Oh for god's sake, Fara, Paige, Sakura you three come with me; we have to bring back our wayward husband; Slippy are the modifications complete?" "Yes ma'am Krystal but why did you have me…" he then heard Fox's angry roar and said "oh… I see… Oh for Corneria's sake Fox; you fucking moron, Falco we need to send backup for Krystal and the girls as Fox has just completely fucking lost it." Hearing those words Falco acknowledged what Slippy had said and got a few other members of Starfox to work with him to drag Fox back; by force if necessary. "Oh come on Foxy boy, I'm meant to be the hot head here not you; Jesus… Rob will you hurry up and launch us will you? This is a dire situation because our leader has gone completely loopy and is taking on…ugh… Starwolf again; and I thought those bastards were dead! How the fuck are they back?!"

As the best pilots of Starfox got into their arwings Marcus felt something was off and rushed to tell the team that was about to launch but he was too late because no sooner had he got into the corridor that led to the hangar bay the door sealed and he couldn't get in; all he heard was "Lift lock released… Arwing launch in progress…depressurising hangar bay, All wings launched," followed by the sound of the arwing g-diffuser engines roar into life to which he said "no! Im too late!" he then ran up to the bridge where his grandma was sat at the mission console; he came running in distressed to which Vixie said "Marcus what's wrong?" Looking into Vixie's eyes he said "nana you need to call them back because something doesn't seem right." Dismissing Marcus' concern Vixie said "why are you so worried?" to which Marcus replied "don't you think that it's strange that Starwolf is back after being eliminated by my parents? Not forgetting that my father has gone into berserk mode when he is normally level-headed, something stinks and I am not sure what it is but I am really worried! Please call them back to the hangar bay," no sooner had Marcus said that there was frantic chatter on the Starfox battle net "Fox? Fox what are you doing? Why are you shooting at US? We aren't your enemy stop joking around!" "Krystal what is going on? Why is Fox attacking us? Has he lost his mind?!" "I don't know Paige but he is really taking it to us! My shields are already red lighting and the left and part of the right wing are critically damaged he is also targeting the cockpit! I'm scared what can I do?!" "Krystal, Paige stay calm, we can figure this out; we just need to immobilise him for a few seconds so Krystal can use her abilities, I'll shoot out his weapons system, Paige you shoot out his propulsion and don't go overboard okay? We need him alive because we can't do much if he is dead now can we? Ladies let's trap us a Fox…." "Fara that is a horrid saying but I guess this cannot be helped alright we will do this your way but while we do that we need some backup, Falco, Slippy, Bill can you hear me?" "Yeah loud and clear Krystal, Slippy and I can hear you oh and Bill can too" "Don't get smart mouthed Falco or I will pluck your tail feathers out one by one; I may be the general of the Cornerian defence force but I am still a Starfox member, we will get Fox back our my name isn't bill fucking grey." "Hey guys what can I do? I'm just a mechanic and I always get my ass surrounded I'm not that good a fighter… ESPECIALLY NOT AGAINST FOX FUCKING MCCLOUD!" "Slippy will you calm down? I know you can help; just tell us where we can shoot to safely immobilise Fox and then work with Falco and Bill to take out the trash we know now as Neo-Starwolf." "Okay Fara let's do this!" after that the panic over the battle net was replaced by calm and focus with Fara leading the assault against the now renegade Fox McCloud.

As the fight heated up Fara became more and more calm and collected; much to the point where she was making calculated and effective measures against Fox and after a while she said in a calm voice "Slippy my friend; we need that shield analysis and we also need the points to shoot out in an effort to effectively immobilise and cripple Fox's Arwing while keeping him alive, not that there is a rush or anything but if we don't do this properly we will lose Fox permanently and he will die so erm yeah when you are ready." Slippy nodded and said "I'm sorry Fara but there is interference from an unknown entity; I can't get a decent sensor lock on Fox's shield gauge so I guess we are…" there was a silence when a familiar voice spoke up "Starfox; don't lose hope, I know my son is in there somewhere. Use your instincts and believe in yourself, believe in each other and believe…in…me…" then a familiar Arwing flew in and Vixie immediately recognised it… It was James McCloud's Arwing! Her husband had appeared to help but she was confused as to how so she tried to reach out to him but all she got was white noise, static and a low-pitched hum that she could barely hear and as she looked on the screen she saw a message "please…help…me…Starfox… I… don't want this… I don't want to fight anymore…I….want…to spend…the rest…of…my…life with….my… F…A…M...I…L...Y" then the screen fizzled and went black as both the internal and external lights of Great fox II and Great Vixen shut off along with the engines and as a result the ship just died, no power was flowing and the only system that was active was the life support system "wh…What's going on? Why is the ship dead and what was that message on the screen?!" Vixie said giving a scared whimper to which Marcus just pointed to the screen which had one flashing name on it… FOX MCCLOUD and Marcus said "I knew something was wrong nana, I KNEW it…. The person our family are fighting against is not my father; it's the regent, he may be Father in body but not in mind. Daddy is in the ship or rather it's his spirit; in that blind rage he fell for the regent's tricks and now the regent is in my father's body." No sooner had Marcus said that Great Fox II and Great Vixen suddenly booted up and trained all of the turrets on Fox's arwing to which Fara said "Vixie what are you doing? Why are you aiming the cannons at Fox?" no sooner had she said that there was a beeping on all of their consoles which was followed by "…M…O…V...E…N…O…W…" and without warning ALL of the arwings dispatched to capture 'Fox' had their navigations computers overridden and forcefully moved themselves out of the way of the laser fire; that was followed by another message "…it's…Me…Fox…McCloud…" confused the team looked on as Fox's arwing was devastated by one massive joint bombardment from Great Fox II and Great Vixen that immobilised Fox's arwing and without warning Fox's arwing was forcefully transported into Great Fox II's hangar bay as a high-powered repulsion field was directed towards Fox's body so if he tried to escape, he'd get zapped back by a high voltage repulsion beam virtually rendering him unconscious. As 'Fox' was transported into Great Fox II the Arwing of James McCloud faded out of existence once again making Vixie's heart ache; all she wanted was for her family to be reunited but just like dust in the wind her husband vanished and her son was missing. Sensing her sadness Marcus walked up to Vixie and gave her a hug before saying "don't worry nana, we will see them again I can feel it so don't cry okay?" Vixie's eyes teared up and she tightly embraced Marcus who just said "I love you nana." Then he hugged her back and cheered her up slightly. How will they get Fox back? What will it take to end the suffering of Starfox?


End file.
